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ALLAH KERIM 



By EDITH M. DAVIS 

AUTHOR OF 

THE ADVENTURES OF PHOEBE ALLAN 




Boston 

The Roxburgh Publishing Company 

Inc. 






Copyrighted, 1920 

By EDITH M. DAVIS 

Rights Reserved 



m 23 mo 



©CLA566306 



A STORY OF A SINGLE SOUL. 
A MORTAL WITHOUT A NAME. 



'Through me, ye go into the doleful city; 
Through me, ye go into eternal pain; 
Through me, ye go among the lost forever; 
Where thou shalt see the miserable throngs 
Who mourn the loss of intellectual good." 

Dante. 

PROLOGUE 

"From many races, one people" 

New York is America's greatest city, and 
like all other great cities, it has some parts 
beautiful and attractive, and other parts, 
where the darkness of night hides from the 
eye, sins which lengthen the black catalogue 
of HELL. 

Broadway is the scene of all wealth and 
prosperity, but you no sooner turn the corner 
of Worth Street out of Broadway, than you 
seem to have entered another sphere of 
existence. 

As there was "Darkest England" so there 
is "Darkest America, " I doubt that a spot 
can be found that sin has not made terrible, 



6 ALLAH KERIM 

or where death has not left some fearful 
token of its presence. 

The only other city in the world that can 
be compared to this great citadel of sin — is 
Paris ; its vices rise to enormous proportions ; 
like hundred-gated Thebes, it fades away in 
its corruption — or like Rome — or London 
— it terrifies mankind by unheard of crime. 

What was true of those cities — is now 
true of New York and Washington. In fact 
the whole American people are now encoun- 
tering the same evils. 

Civilization is a war — a war of light with 
darkness — a tragedy of great conflicts — 
where hostile passions are ever combating — 
MAMMON and MORALITY — and in 
which the final victory has thus far gone to — 
MAMMON! 

When the republics of the Middle Ages 
surrounded themselves with material splen- 
dor, their liberty decayed; and again, Spar- 
tan history teaches, how easy it is for a nation, 
like an individual, to misdirect its energies, 
to subordinate the higher to the lower. 

This passion is now so consuming, that it is 
not only ruining the character of indivi- 



ALLAH KERIM 7 

duals, it is undermining the frame of our 
government, and disgracing a NATION! 
Year by year, the tone of public feeling is 
sinking lower and lower — year by year our 
CONGRESS and SENATE become of less 
account before all decent men — and year 
by year — the memory of THE GREAT 
FATHERS OF THE REVOLUTION is out- 
raged more and more in the corrupted life of 
their degenerated people. 

This great tide of people is as dangerous to 
itself, as to its enemies; trampling upon their 
own people, driving every obstacle away be- 
fore its irresistible sweep, wielding a power 
that is weak even in its might; like the rush 
of waters when the flood gates are swept 
away, which roll on because they cannot stop ; 
and what is called their force, is but drifting 
with the current. Thus the great tide of 
humanity moves on together, according to 
the tendency that happens to prevail, the 
good among them, compelled to fall in with 
the majority, without giving the few oppor- 
tunity to make their expostulations and in- 
fluence tell with the many. 

When Rome was largest, Rome was weakest ; 



8 ALLAH KERIM 

and fell apart, limb from limb, and sank, 
a mass of corruption. The worldly culture 
of today, as once in degenerated pagan 
Rome, the word of Tacitus holds good "To be 
corrupt, and to be corrupted, this is called 
the age." 

In one form or another the rich rule, who 
rob and tax the many for the benefit of the 
few; Burke says "that ambition, though it 
has ever the same general views, has not at 
all times the same means nor the same partic- 
ular objects." So far, in every race between 
wealth and principle, the former has won. 

Ah! Cities with its sunlight — and its 
shadows. Its vices — and its virtues. Its 
love — and its hate. Its wealth — and its 
poverty. Its society, some in fine raiment — 
and some in rags. Its society which shuns 
all contact with the down-trodden and un- 
fortunate — whom it creates itself — but 
which it beholds with a callousness of ease 
— treating their own flesh and blood with 
the same hard inhumanity that Cicero 
treated the gladiators of his friend Atticus — 
and alas — the poor with an equal callous- 
ness of woe! 



ALLAH KERIM 9 

And so the great mass toil on under heavy 
burdens, living in an abyss of which the rich 
know nothing, condemned to toil for life in 
the same beaten circle, withering in the mud, 
awaiting the wheel to crush them, still 
cheated with the semblance of progression, 
the high intelligence of the age; but still un- 
relieved and unthought of by the millions 
who are protected by wealth; who have no 
thought but for the science of gain — no 
heart, but for gold ; no desire, but for the in- 
crease of property; no fear, but for the loss 
of half a dollar; who forget the humane and 
divine view of the universe, and become as 
soulless as the machine by which they make 
their money; they sell their good names, and 
their honorable consciousness for lucre, with 
as little compunction as Esau sold his birth- 
right for a mess of pottage. 

They have become hardened in unbelief — 
BLASPHEMERS! They have become 
lovers of themselves — GROVELING SELF- 
ISHNESS! They are without belief in 
virtue — DESPISERS OF THOSE WHO 
ARE GOOD! They are without honor — 
and without shame! 



10 ALLAH KERIM 

What is the present drift of marriage and 
home life? Has the relation between the 
sexes become more pure with its divorces 
and all its attendant wrong to the law of 
God and the welfare of Society? These 
MEN and WOMEN who give their lives 
to unhallowed pleasures, marriage-breaking, 
illicit love, prostitution, and criminal inter- 
course. Men who have but contsmpt and 
disrespect for woman as wife and mother, 
even when adroitly veiled in the compliment 
that most flatters her when most eager for 
her ruin. 

WOMEN who defile their souls to secure 
a position which will compel "social recogni- 
tion, " who will lie, cheat, steal, pay court to 
men and consort with them in unworthy 
ways, who disgrace themselves and their 
children — for WHAT? to wear costly and 
superb clothes and dazzling gems — to dance 
to ravishing music — to ride in a hand- 
some limousine — to make a series of 
calls upon those whom they hope are not at 
home. 

Alas! This world will not be improved 
until the relationship between man and 



ALLAH KERIM 11 

woman has become more pure, until they 
decide the existence as well as the character 
of the new generation. "We are all born — 
we live — and we die." THEREFORE — 
the first great fact of life — is BIRTH. 
Plato said in his laws so many centuries ago 
"that life begins before birth; and the mother 
is the cradle of the unborn child." 

To raise and regenerate the world morally 
— it will be necessary that true — WOMAN- 
HOOD MUST COME TO THE RESCUE! 
The mother must be a sacred person, for in 
her lies what the future generation WILL 
BE! and her offspring must be protected by 
all skill and care. 

The mind and the heart are factors of life 
from the beginning. Moral and intellectual 
as well as physical traits are transmitted by 
generation; and not only disease, but folly 
and sin, go with the blood that flows from a 
union of man and woman against the 
DIVINE law and the best instincts and 
affections of the heart; thus children tell the 
secret, that parents never spoke to the world. 

WOMEN ARE THE MAKING OF 
CREATION! AYE — and the marring too. 



12 ALLAH KERIM 

Therefore, it behoves that WOMAN should 
stop and THINK! — and then— THINK 
AGAIN — WHAT THIS MEANS TO HER! 
MOTHER' OF THE RACE — REFORM 
THYSELF! 

Build from within — your mind is your 
real being — every thought is force. 
1 Thoughts are things. With thoughts you 
can do all things." Each individual has 
two personalities — to each of us two sides 
are gliding on at the same time — one above 
— the other underneath — Abel upholding 
the good — Cain the evil. The life of our 
minds — the life of our actions — the out- 
ward and visible — tne inward and invisible. 
We are what we know ourselves to be — 
and what others think us to be. By the life 
of our actions we are judged by the world — 
the inward and invisible is never known — 
but to ONE! 

A good woman can make us wish and 
strive for something more pure ; she can teach 
us that virtue is not a hard law, a dull form- 
alism, a harsh negation but a living inspira- 
tion, drawing power from the eternal love, 
and going forth in healthful freedom to its 



ALLAH KERIM 13 

conflict of peace. As Cicero says, "Virtue is 
sufficient to secure happiness. " 

By thus elevating mankind and woman- 
kind in thought and work, society will be 
elevated in laws and institutions. Spencer 
says, "that paper constitutions will not 
work as they are intended to work and that 
the real basis and bulwark of national 
greatness and of progressive liberty, is 
character/ ' 

To me, the world can be sustained by four 
things only: the world to be purified by the 
learning of the wise, the justice of the great, 
the prayers of the good, and last but not 
least the PURITY OF ITS WOMEN! thus 
by a MORAL DOCTRINE — MORALLY 
FOUNDED — THIS GREAT REPUBLIC 
CAN BE SOLIDLY ESTABLISHED. 

No political party or society of any kind 
can — or has established DEMOCRACY. 
Nothing as yet — has even converged to 
produce DEMOCRACY! 

The advent of Democracy can only be 
brought in by a CHRISTIAN SPIRIT— 
when HUMAN RIGHTS and JUSTICE rise 
above the present institutions and LAWS — 



14 ALLAH KERIM 

when the GOVERNORS — as well as the 
GOVERNED shall alike hold the sacred 
idea of "JUSTICE TO ALL." In this way 
we may develop the human spirit so as to 
to arrive at its fullness and perfection — then 
this world will be ready for DEMOCRACY. 

"How is it possible to compress into one brief glance 
The endless stair-flights, endless and dark by 
Which an honorable man descends to desires and 
Deeds of dishonor! the downfall of a single soul, 
Suitably narrated would fill a volume." 

Victor Hugo 

"Mistakes may be the stepping-stones of the stairs 
Of which we are climbing. Every time we recognize 
One for what it is, and call it a step instead 
Of a goal, we move on." 

Louise Collier Willcox 

'This was the entry, then, these stairs — but whither 
after?" 

Tragedy of Brennovalt 



CHAPTER I 

"He lead me down among the things of darkness: 
There sighs, and groans, and lamentable wailings, 
So rang throughout that region without star, 
That on the threshold I began to weep: 
Horrible tongues, discordant languages, 
Words full of dolour, ascents of sharp anger, 
Shrill and hoarse voices, sounds of smitten hands, 
Rose in wild tumult, eddying through the gloom 
Like sands before the whirlwind of the desert." 

Dante 

The twilight shadows settled over the city ; 
between the edges of two clouds, a star 
flashed and flickered unsteadily^ Up the 
dark streets in the vicinity of the Bowery the 
lights were shining feebly; the lamps were 
few and far between. As the twilight gra- 
dually disappeared, and the shades thick- 
ened, an almost total darkness prevailed in 
places. 

The wind sighed and sung, as if murmur- 
ing some weird incantation, mingling its 
gusts with a rising mist; the lights were cast- 

15 



16 ALLAH KERIM 

ing black shadows that had no shape, and 
belong to darkness. 

Through the floating mist a dusky shape 
is gliding — gliding stealthily — keeping 
within the shadows — and then disappear- 
ing in the darkness. Then came another — 
and another — and then another. This 
stealthiness is ominous — this furtive glid- 
ing in and out — this silent flitting of night- 
hawks — this incessant low shuffling of feet 
— reminding one of the tread of fallen spirits, 
who glide like phantoms into the Gates 
of the Inferno, which are ever open to those 
who choose to enter and mingle with the 
ferocious shades wandering in its pit. 

A grisly and awful sight! A terrible shadow 
of something that smothers the spirit of 
man — a hideous travesty of itself — and 
which converts human beings into fiends, 
and makes earth to its inhabitants a HELL 
of unutterable torments; it silences the voice 
of conscience; and quenches and debases to 
the lowest level the holiest emotions of the 
human soul; and souls thus deprived of great 
principles — fall collapsed into the mire of 
the earth; plunging down into the blackness 



ALLAH KERIM 17 

of the abyss of death — or plunging on like 
a river without source and without issue — 
rolling its waves eternally through a pur- 
poseless channel. 

On — on — up and down the street — 
the lagging tramp — tramp — tramp of thou- 
sands night after night — come and go — 
this bat-life of the leprous spawn of human 
beings are constantly thrown upon the shores 
of life, only to contaminate and curse — 
sinking at last into a terrible gulf of darkness. 
Tomorrow will be like today — and the day 
after that — and on — and on — forever on 
— will go this continual procession of shadows 
— for the tide rolls them ever onward — 
pushing them along the dark road from which 
there is no return; and no rainbow lifts an 
arch of promise against the gathering dark- 
ness. ''Each generation slides into the cast- 
off garments of its predecessor, too indolent 
even to change its pattern. " 

What a night! Darkness everywhere! 
Peopled with shades! How cold. How 
dreary. The wind is wailing still, like a pre- 
sentiment of evil; the rain is drizzling, the 
streets are rivers of black mud and slush, 



18 ALLAH KERIM 

through which walk haggard women and 
besotted men, how their teeth chatter, how 
they press their thin hands together as they 
shuffle along the sidewalks. What a hid- 
eous stream of dreariness, misery, squalor 
and crime. 

The gas-lamps glimmer cold and mocking 
as they shine in the darkness, reflecting in 
the muddy pools beneath. If the stones 
could speak, then, each could record some 
dark and bloody deed committed within 
these foul haunts, this hot-bed of American 
crime and degradation. 

A sharp peal of thunder, followed by a 
flash of lightning, told of a coming storm; 
then darkness was folded about a cluster of 
rickety, rotten buildings, a sheltering pile for 
the poor, where beings of every age, color, 
and condition of infamy are herded and 
driven together like cattle. 

The houses almost touch each other; over- 
hanging the streets with gloom. They close 
about them; a net-work of streets and alleys 
hedge them in, where they are lost from sight 
in the great surging mass of humanity. 

As the night advanced, the wind raged 



ALLAH KERIM 19 

with unaccountable fury; peal after peal of 
thunder; and great flashes of lightning 
swathed the sky, shooting through a garret- 
window it flung a light into every shadowy 
corner, revealing in its instant illuminations 
a garret — its old black rafters draped with 
festoons of cobwebs — concealing an army 
of spiders; a floor full of cracks and holes, 
thick with layers of dirt; in the corner, a 
broken stove filled with gray ashes. 

A sudden flash revealed a woeful spectacle! 
That of a woman stretched upon a draggled 
bed, in the midst of her birth-throes; the 
sounds were swallowed in the wind that 
rushed with demoniac shrieks, and then 
died away in frightful torment; the light- 
ning flashed uncertain shadows upon the 
wall, making the room look weird and 
fantastic. 

Towards dawn, the feeble cry of an infant 
was heard — and into THIS he was born! 
A tiny mite of mortality — a helpless, shiver- 
ing, unwelcome guest — unbidden — re- 
pulsed before it cometh — born of an adul- 
terous amour — a moment's unhallowed pas- 
sion— OUT OF SUCH CORRUPTION 



20 ALLAH KERIM 

SPRINGS LIFE. "Who can bring a clean 
thing out of an unclean? NOT ONE." 

ALAS! The MOTHERS of the race — 
who DESTROY the heirs of their own body 

— the HOPES of their own RACE. How 
many out of the millions upon millions of 
MOTHERS pray for this unknown — this 
new-born creature — this hope of the world 

— this beginning of that "PIECE OF 
WORK" called MAN — with a genuine 
MOTHER LOVE? We know that all over 
the world children are regarded as burdens 

— and inconvenience — a hindrance of plans 
of comfort — an upsetting of their pleasures 

— which is anything but welcome. 

Does such as this woman possess aught of 
maternal tenderness? Does such as she 
know how to mould a child's mind, rooting 
out evil tendencies? Evil may come in spite 
of your best endeavor, but it is certain with- 
out it. That little child will be taintad by a 
vile mother, and in its turn a degraded man. 

What to her — is the infant at her side? 
Was it not the living evidence to a moment's 
selfish lust? Did not her whole being loathe 
the creature! She hated her own son — her 



ALLAH KERIM 21 

own flesh and blood with as bitter a hatred 
as ever a woman felt toward a man! 

The baby feebly wails; the woman raised 
her head, and gazed upon that tiny morsel; 
a strange dark glitter creeping into her eyes; 
as she looked she muttered, "What for 
should she have brats! They ought to diel 
ALL OF THEM!" she hissed these last 
words between her teeth — her face full of 
intense loathing. 

All at once every muscle in her body grew 
tense with a purpose entering and filling her 
soul; her face grew livid; her quivering 
right arm arose; she reached out her wasted 
hand; in her eyes there was a cruel glitter, 
her face was now rigid as if cut out of stone ; 
she resembled a somnolent serpent — veno- 
mous — coiled for a spring — and sure to 
carry death in that spring. 

She was hideous to the gaze! Her eyes 
were fixed upon the face of her baby with a 
stare which seemed to say, "WHY NOT? 
ONE MORE OR LESS! WHY NOT?" Her 
whole soul rose in defiance and hate — aye — 
and murder! "I won't have it! I won't have 
it! I'll choke it! I'll choke it to death!" 



22 ALLAH KERIM 

As her hand grasped and fastened upon 
the throat of her child, she was seized with 
a fit of giddiness, the room whirled round 
and round furiously, something like a mist 
hung before her and blurred the baby from 
sight; her hand relaxed powerless; she was 
deafened by a violent singing in her ears; 
a faintness overcame her, and she sank back 
unconscious. 

Thus came this poor little shrunken 
BEING into life, just as millions of others 
come — the mother a CREATURE of shame 
— A FATHER — who vanishes somewhere 
into unknown space. 

Already the sombre shadows of his dreary 
life was beginning to settle down upon him; 
a life made sorrowful by neglect and cruelty. 
It is a pity that only the evil things in this 
world — poverty — with all its vices — and 
all its crimes are contagious. 

As the day dawned, the wind wailed about 
the house as if a lost soul was groaning in 
wordless anguish; and the whirling, driving 
rain beat upon the roof, and against the 
window; while the baby kept up a low wail- 
ing that was pitiful to hear. 



CHAPTER II 

"Thou wouldst have me to renew 
Horrible pangs, of which the very thought 
So wrings my heart, I scarce find power for utterance." 

Dante 

This woman suckled her young as would a 
viper, willing to throw it into the gutter to 
grasp a glass of gin. As the infant is un- 
conscious, it cannot be morally injured by 
its mother, but it is not so with the child — 
it follows its mother's example, who at last 
drags it insensibly to her level. 

A year went by — and still another ; the 
child passes day after day in this abominable 
garret, neglected and ill-treated, his little 
body covered with bruises ; he was hungry — 
always had been HUNGRY! What a pitiful 
sight to see cold — rags — and hunger in a 
little child. To see it tossed to and fro on 
the tide of poverty and misery. 

Day followed day — he crept about with 
his eyes full of tears — his little heart yearn- 
ing and pining for tenderness — he had an 

23 



24 ALLAH KERIM 

untutored instinct that demanded some- 
thing else besides blows and curses! He 
pines and starves for affection — he has a 
longing for sympathy — a craving for a 
mother's love; but the mother cannot give 
what she has not! 

For hours he sat thinking — the tears roll- 
ing down his wasted cheeks — thinking and 
wondering dully WHY? WHY? He won- 
dered all sorts of things: WHY? OH! 
WHY WAS IT? His little heart was full to 
bursting — JUST FOR A WORD — A HU- 
MAN WORD! 

Another year slipped by — and the child 
began drifting from the purity of childhood 
— he was robbed of its joy — its innocence — 

— aye — of the very consciousness of child- 
hood! He was slipping into an atmosphere of 
bitter thoughts — he became silent and moody 
under the baleful shadow of neglect — blows 

— and curses; and early, those sweet impulses 
weak by inheritance, were being chilled. 
Call out the good, and it WILL ANSWER 
YOU. Rouse the evil, AND IT WILL 
GROW! 

A sound, just audible, came faintly to his 



ALLAH KERIM 25 

ear; he listened, he heard a shuffling cf feet 
in the hall, then the door was cautiously 
opened, and a face peered in with a low gurg- 
ling laugh — something that had been a 
woman once, but was now the mere mockery 
of one; a woman with set lips and brazen ex- 
pression, the features coarse and revolting, 
with crisp wiry black hair above low hung 
brows, narrow eyes; a face to which habits of 
gross intemperance had added an expression 
of stupid imbecility. 

At the sight of her, the child shrank in 
fear, his eyes seemed to dilate with terror as 
he gazed into those eyes that glared at him 
with the glare of hate; he crept tremblingly 
to the farthest corner, like a dog that knows 
it will be whipped; at this she laughed, an 
insane crackle — crackle — followed by a 
torrent of foul language, "Out of my sight, 
ye BRAT!" she screamed, and again came 
that wild unearthly laughter. His eyes 
grew larger and darker as he watched 
every move she made. Ah! how that miser- 
able piece of humanity was feared; how he 
watched that eye with an intensity almost 
unbearable; how that voice made him shiver; 



26 ALLAH KERIM 

seeing this she broke out in a furious rage 
"Hurry up! Hurry up! d'yre hear me, out of 
my sight I tell yer!" saying this she came to- 
ward him with a threatening air — her arm 
raised — her eyes sparkling with ferocity ; 
at this the child put out his little hands in 
an agony of fear the tears flowing down his 
cheeks — and upon his knees — he implored 
her for mercy. ''Don't, oh, don't!" he begged 
in such a piteously shrill voice; "Don't, 
please don't!" he cried with a sob — putting 
forth his little trembling hands — his face 
quivering with fright. A fury took posses- 
sion of her as he pleaded, and giving vent to 
her rage she clutched him by the hair of his 
head with her bony hand, she shook him until 
he was dazed — then with all her force she 
hit his head back and forth against the wall. 
She rebuked him with a torrent of abuse, 
"I'll shake ye till every bone in yer blasted 
body falls apart!" she yelled with an oath. 

"Oh! let me go! Let me go!" he screamed, 
and in a spasm of terror he sprang away 
from her and rushed for the door — before 
he could reach the door she snatched a stick 
^nd came furiously upon him. "Yer try 



ALLAH KERIM 27 

that again ye brat" shrieked the beldam as 
she struck him with the stick, "Ye try that 
again" indulging in the most blasphemous 
language "and I'll kill yer!" 

Blow on blow fell, the sharp pain of which 
left marks upon his body. The most fright- 
ful piercing shrieks were heard, rendered un- 
natural from fright and horror; the hag 
poured out in blows her whole pent-up pas- 
sion; she whipped him until compelled to 
cease by pure exhaustion; when, with a vio- 
lent push, she flung the child angrily from 
her, who fell heavily to the floor; striking his 
head upon the edge of a bucket which stood 
near — a sharp cry — a convulsive shudder 
— and he lay apparently insensible — only 
an occasional gasping sob giving evidence 
that he was still living ; from his head — the 
blood was trickling down over his ragged 
clothes. 

The hag watched him for a moment as he 
lay there before her, and then burst into that 
unnatural laugh — a laugh which struck fear 
to the child's heart — and with that laugh — 
she strode from the room. 

When alone — his little frame quivered 



28 ALLAH KERIM 

with emotion — moan after moan escaped 
him — a great gulping sob shook him ; it was 
piteous to hear him sobbing. He sat upon 
the floor — rocking his little body from side 
to side — he wrung his hands — sobbing as 
if his little heart would break — his strained 
eyes stared — into the darkness — his face 
so white and fixed in its despair — all his 
pent-up suffering burst into a wail — as he 
rocked backward and forward — his tiny 
hands locked tight together, "Oh! I wish I 
was dead! I wish I was dead! NOBODY 
CARES FOR ME! Nobody in all this world 
cares for me! NOT EVEN MY MOTHER! 
If I could only die! IF I COULD ONLY 
DIE!" he moaned over and over as his little 
body rocked to and fro — to and fro. 

How grief shook him — what bitter — 
bitter cries in a child — a cry that will echo 
through life forever more! The warm effu- 
sions of a bleeding heart is something that 
should wring the sternest soul. 

After this wild spasm of grief — he sat 
there amid the shadows — staring at space — 
he sat with idly folded hands — and eyes that 
did not see — eyes that looked out across the 



ALLAH KERIM 29 

desolate future! What soul-grief — what 
regions of sorrow — that wrings the heart 
with such torture — it has not the power of 
utterance. 

He was afraid — he was afraid of every- 
thing — he was afraid of his mother — he 
was afraid of his own shadow! There was 
something sinister in that empty room! 
Fear filled his heart! A bug crawled across 
his hand. A mouse gnawing, made a noise; 
he crawled, shivering to bed, cowering down 
among the bed-clothes. 

As he lay there alone among the shadows, 
it seemed to him peopled with unknown 
shapes of terror; he was frightened at a cer- 
tain dreadful sound; not a daytime noise — 
but one of those stealthly — indefinable — 
long — interval noises — that comes in the 
darkness — makes one's blood creep and 
curdle! CREAK — CREAK — CREAK — 
C-R-E-E-C-H-Y! C-R-A-W-C-H-Y! Softer 
and softer — then dying away entirely ; a 
weirdly awful sound! Goblin whispers and 
rustlings swept through the room. The 
wind rattled the window. The door creaked. 
A shrinking panel cracked. Then a grating 



30 ALLAH KERIM 

and grinding. A scampering and squealing. 
A dash of rain pat! pat! SPLASH! A hun- 
dred imaginary noises made his heart throb 

— he raised his head and listened, he lifted 
himself on one elbow and peered into the dis- 
tant corners of the room, his heart was 
throbbing wildly — he was sure there was 
something in that room with him — a some- 
thing that only comes in the darkness — he 
was sure he could see something — it was 
difficult to tell WHAT that made his heart 
throb with violence — it seemed like some 
vague black form — he continued to gaze in 
a kind of hideous fascination — IT MOVES! 

— IT IS CREEPING TOWARDS HIM! — 
IT WILL HAVE HIM! His hands were icy 
cold. IT WILL GRASP HIM BY THE 
THROAT! As he gazed with horror — it 
suddenly vanished — it seemed to crumble 
away. He looked around with a shudder — 
THERE WAS NOTHING! It WAS GONE! 
and he breathed a sigh of relief — BUT NO 

— THERE IT IS AGAIN! and so it came 
again and again — never remaining but a 
few minutes at a time — when it faded away. 

Trembling with a nameless fear, he crawled 



ALLAH KERIM 31 

down — down — pulling the bed-clothes over 
his head, where at last he fell asleep, utterly 
worn out. 

In his sleep he was tormented with dreams, 
he felt himself traveling hundreds of miles 
away — flying across frightful gulfs that 
yawned beneath his feet — or he was drop- 
ping from an enormous height — and again 
his mother pursued him with a long spear — 
and was forever on the point of overtaking 
him. 

Thus the first five years of his life were 
passed, no inner life was developed; it was a 
waste — a desert! His outward life was 
cold and empty! The love of kindred here 
dies out of strangulation — by the neglect to 
make the least exhibition of love — by unjust 
punishment which darkens and embitters the 
soul. 

"Out of the heart are the issues of life/' 
Human kindness is never lost, even if be- 
stowed upon the unworthy. 

The great black wave of ruin is sweeping 
down upon him fast — fast! He is strug- 
gling — his soul just hovering over the abyss 
of darkness — the tide is strong — it is 



32 ALLAH KERIM 

almost surging over him! A WORD — A 
HUMAN WORD — AYE — EVEN A 
LOOK — WILL SAVE HIM FROM 
PLUNGING DOWN INTO THE DEPTHS 
FROM WHICH THERE IS NO RETURN. 



CHAPTER III 

"Why do I exist 
Why art thou wretched? Why are all things so? 
Even HE who made us must be as the maker 
Of all things unhappy! To produce destruction 
Can surely never be the task of joy, 
And yet my sire says HE'S Omnipotent. 
Then why is evil — He being good?" 

Byron 

The weeks dragged wearily on; his mother 
staggered in and out, her life given up to 
drink, her soul so degraded — so tarnished — 
so discolored by depravity — that a white 
spot could not be found in her soul. 

How true it is that when a woman once 
commences a downward course, her descent 
is more rapid — and she arrives at a depth of 
wickedness positively not attainable by MAN 

— her path may be traced by the poison and 
slime she leaves behind her. 

Shivering under old tatters — the boy not 
yet six years of age — was driven out to beg 

— he was obliged to pilfer — forced into 

33 



34 ALLAH KERIM 

crime, "Make 'em thieves — keep 'em thieves," 
she said; what cared she that if my child 
steals I am responsible for his sin, and unless 
I frown upon it, I am an accomplice in it. 
At this age, children begin to follow their 
mother's example; bad children reflect the 
imperfections of the parent — as bad CITI- 
ZENS the imperfections of the government. 

It is quite possible to train a child out of 
all common sense, common usefulness and 
earthly and heavenly beauty. The associa- 
tion with that which is repulsive is freed 
from even an idea that is UNPLEASANT. 

His nature was changing, it came on grad- 
ually — so gradually — as to be hardly per- 
ceptible—but STILL IT CAME. 

He lived in a reverie that had something 
portentous and terrible about it. What re- 
pressed emotions swarm in the dark depths 
of his soul, breeding new unthought thoughts, 
subtly influencing his actions, and ceaselessly 
watching for a chance to slip into conscious- 
ness. At times, his soul shrank from these 
pitiless thoughts which assailed him; but in 
vain he is chided by his conscience — IT IS 
BUT A STILL SMALL VOICE. 



ALLAH KERIM 35 

The MIND can create a world for itself — 
it is its own place — and in itself — can 
make a Heaven of Hell — a Hell of Heaven. 
As Milton says, "The heart and mind are 
open for all winds to blow through, airs from 
Heaven or blasts from HELL." 

Such is the depravity of human nature, 
that although it be truly penitent today — 
before tomorrow it will be plunged as deep 
in the mire as ever. So peremptorily did 
these shades beckon him that it was like a 
grim black phantom that sat upon his shoul- 
der, casting a shadow before his eyes. Week 
by week — month by month he brooded upon 
it — he dreamed of it by night! The battle 
in his heart raged fiercer and hotter; he com- 
menced to HATE HER — the feeling grew 
and grew upon him — he felt as vindictively 
towards her as if she was his bitterest enemy 
— his mother despised HIM — and her 
SON abhors HER! New and evil thoughts 
swept darkly across the troubled surface of 
his mind — and the hiss of the serpent wound 
its first cold coil in his heart — where its 
hissings and writhings were no less terrible 
because unheard and unseen. 



36 ALLAH KERIM 

The outer conduct of the boy was known 

— but the internal conflict between good and 
evil was unknown. The outer deeds and 
their consequences do not reveal the inner 
being nor the essence of individuality. Con- 
tact and familiarity with vices, gradually 
WEARS OFF THE EDGE OF ABHOR- 
RENCE, overclouding the highest principles, 
as well as the most refined minds. 

As the slow years rolled on, his soul de- 
veloped like a noxious reptile reared in a 
damp, dark cellar; shrunken and distorted — 
twisted — ghastly and unnatural. "Nature, 
Bacon tells us, runs either to herbs or weeds/' 

A morbid tendency for the horrible ran 
through his being. He hated everything! 
But OH! HOW HE HATED HER! He 
cursed her in his heart; and he wished 
"SHE'D KICK THE BUCKET!" 

The most human sentiments fled from 
his bosom; he became callous — hardened. 
He found enjoyment in tormenting and 
killing! 

He began by inflicting torture on insects, 
he took a keen delight in torturing to death 

— a fly — a great hairy-legged spider or a 



ALLAH KERIM 37 

huge wriggling caterpillar. He gave full 
vent to his inherent cruelty — the greatest 
abuse he could heap upon some animal was 
his greatest joy — a howl of pain from some 
dumb brute was the most grateful sound to 
his ear. Thus it is that the ferocity of ani- 
mals, and their malevolent propensities is 
the result of wickedness on the part of man. 
Cruelty to animals must be supplanted by 
kindness towards them — when LOVE con- 
trols their spirits — where only FEAR 
now does — the "LEOPARD WILL LIE 
DOWN WITH THE LAMB, AND THE 
LION SHALL EAT STRAW LIKE THE 
OX." 

The downward path daily becomes more 
slippery with sin, until the soul loses all 
ability of will — all power of resistance. A 
change began to creep over his face — there 
w r as something jarring in his laugh — it 
sounded crafty and cruel — theft — hatred 
— and cruelty filled the boy's eyes with a 
wicked glitter — and the heart with the 
sudden incipience of crime — he decided he 
was getting altogether too big to be hustled 
about in this way — she had to quit laying 



38 ALLAH KERIM 

"that air broom of hern over his head, or 
some day I'll strike her!" 

Dark — vague — suggestions began to stir 
within him. "JUST WAIT," he muttered, 
"MY TIME WILL COME! JUST WAIT! 
I'LL GET EVEN SOME DAY!" 

What vile imaginations will be forever 
forming themselves within us — a whirlpool 
of thoughts which gradually swallows up all 
that which is good. 

He sank lower and lower, and the lower he 
went down — the more absorbed he became 
with the monstrous idea which had taken 
possession of him — and so he nourished this 
serpent which wound deeper and deeper with 
its envenomed folds until his heart strings 
were crushed beneath its coils. 

REVENGE is a secret monster which is 
ever gnawing away at the root of human life ; 
he heeded not the inward monitor — which 
whispered the ancient words — that were 
spoken in thunder and lightning, "THOU 
SHALT NOT KILL." 

Sorrow falls with very different power 
upon different human hearts ; it is to some as 
the devastating tempest — tearing up the soil 



ALLAH KERIM 39 

— and beating down and destroying all that 
which is fair and fruitful. "Ismir Allah" (It 
is time for prayer.) 

Vengeance to God alone belongs : — 

But when I think of all my wrongs 

My blood is liquid Flame! 

One sole desire — one passion remains, 

To keep life's fever within my veins — 

Vengeance! DIRE VENGEANCE on the ONE 

Who cast on me this ruinous BLAST. 



40 ALLAH KERIM 



CHAPTER IV 

"She hath spoken, and her words still resound in his 
ears!" 

Hao-Khieou-Tchouan. 

It was night. In the old stove a few 
pieces of wood crackled and burned; from the 
cupboard a dark stream of cockroaches 
flowed forth ; the room was lighted by a lamp 
— the glass smoked and broken — patched 
with brown paper. At a rickety table 
crouched his mother; leaning forward on her 
elbows — her fingers hiding her grimy face 
and cheerless eyes. 

The door creaked — opened — and the boy 
shambled into the room; at the sound, she 
lifted her head, as her eyes met his — they 
gleamed; "So yer here at last, ye bag of lazy 
bones !" she said with a leer as she added, 
"Do ye think I'll be waiting all night fer sich 
brats as ye?" "AW! go ter Hell, ye old 
chicken hawk!" he answered with a sneer. 
"And what's more, I'll advise ye ter let me 
alone, if ye know what's good fer yer!" he 



ALLAH KERIM 41 

added in a low fierce tone. ' 'Don't ye dare 
tell me," she replied savagely, as she shook her 
clenched fist in his face, "What I'm ter do, 
ye poisonous young VIPER! I'll let ye know 
I'm BOSS in this yer house!" 

Savage depths began to stir within him. 
All the slumbering hate of his nature was 
being roused into action — his whole soul 
rose in defiance at his mother's leering look. 

'Take away yer dirty fist — ye old RIP! 
Do yer hear!" he hissed between his clenched 
teeth. 

At these words she sprang up with an 
angry scowl — and said in a harsh grating 
tone, "Why — you — you — base-born 
BRAT — you — you — how dare ye talk ter 
me like that! WHY DAMN YE — just let 
me get a hold of yez wunst — and — Til — 

choke ye — ye her last words 

were lost in her inarticulate wrath. 

While she hurled these words at him — a 
terrible expression stole over his face — his 
eyes were balls of fire — and all the blackness 
of HELL seemed concentrated in his heart; 
thoughts raced through his brain with the 
rapidity which almost defied his efforts to 



42 ALLAH KERIM 

catch them. How he hated her! How he 
hated the sight of HER! WHY SHOULD'NT 
HE HATE HER? Had she not made his 
life one long breath of misery? Had he not 
wept and cringed under the hardships of his 
childhood? Hadn't his poor little soul wept 
and flamed under the torture and insult of the 
unjustly applied stick! Had she not ruined 
his life — destroyed all that was good in 
him? Did she not MAKE HIM WHAT 
HE WAS? He made up his mind in an in- 
stant, that she would never — no never 
strike him again! 

"Keep away!" he hisses in a menacing 
tone, ''Don't come near me! Don't touch 
me! If ye do, as sure as I'm standing here, 
I'll — I'll KILL YER!" "KILL ME!" she 
screamed, her face growing purple with rage, 
"You — you — low down dirty cur, you 
threaten to KILL ME?" 

"Yes! if you dare lay hands upon me — I 
WILL!" was the deliberate answer. 

In the bitterness of her rage she cursed him 
— denounced him — she extended her bony 
arm — her long finger quivering like a ser- 
pents tongue — and pointed it full in his face, 



ALLAH KERIM 43 

"Why — you — you — dirty BASTARD 
YOU — I DEFY YOU!" and she laughed in 
his face — a mocking — taunting — jeering 
laugh. 

This taunting — jeering laugh was the last 
drop in an already full cup — it fairly mad- 
dened him — a wild passion took possession 
of him — the blood in his veins flamed like 
fire — his face flushed a deep red — then 
turned to a ghastly pallor — while his eyes 
flashed with a light worse than the eyes of a 
wild beast — with a terrible expression upon 
his face — he stepped one step forward — 
holding her eyes with a stare of deadly ani- 
mosity — he broke out in rapid — broken 
sentences — words that fell like flints — hard 
and separate — one upon another: "Look at 
me — look at ME — I SAY. WHAT AM 
I? WHOSE WORK IS IT? You laugh at 
me — mock me — curse me — rob me of all 
that my poor soul craved and hungered for. 
LOOK INTO MY EYES — NOW— DO 
YOU KNOW WHERE I'M GOING? YOU 
KNOW WHERE I'M GOING — / KNOW." 
As he hurled these words at her — he was 
transformed into a DEVIL — his lips tightly 



44 ALLAH KERIM 

compressed — while his face wore an air of 
desperate resolution — his eyes seemed to 
flash the words: "MY TIME HAS COME!" 

Impelled by a ghastly fascination — she 
cowered beneath the withering hate of his 
glance — she stood transfixed — gazing at 
him in terror — reading in his eyes his savage 
purpose. In vain she tried to remove her 
eyes from her SON — but he held her as by a 
powerful spell — she could not move — or 
cry out — but stood powerless — as in a 
frightful nightmare — it seemed to her — she 
was gazing at a hideous serpent — with head 
erect — its venomous eyes glaring at her in 
fiery eagerness. 

And now — with all his long smothered 
passion let loose — and his hatred bracing his 
nerves and muscles — making him desper- 
ately strong — with one bound he sprang 
forward with a stifled cry — his fingers closed 
round that shriveled throat — she uttered a 
shuddering cry at his touch — despair nerves 
her to wrench away the fingers which held 
her with a grip of steel — and now the battle 
began for the supremacy between MOTHER 
and SON. She made convulsive efforts to 



ALLAH KERIM 45 

breathe — her lips moved in a spasmodic 
struggle for speech "MURDERER!" with a 
terrible gasp the word fell from her lips. 
BUT still he held her with that grip of steel 

— her eyes protruded — her tongue was out 
her mouth — there was a curious gurgling 
sound — a convulsive movement of her body. 
He burst into a laugh of awful triumph — 
then his grip relaxed — his fingers opened — 
and let their prey loose — his mother's form 
fell back — back — and down upon the floor 

— she was dead — stone dead — and BY 
HIS HAND — the evil deed was done. 

A strange feeling came over him as he 
gazed down upon that white dead face — he 
recoiled with awe before his own work — he 
went staggering backward till he felt the wall 
behind him — he could retreat no farther — 
his limbs trembled beneath him — his heart 
throbbed with apprehension — his intellect 
failed him — only the affrightened soul within 
him was filled with panic — almost blind with 
fear. 

Alas! he had in his passion committed him- 
self to that from which life will never allow 
him to be dissevered. All the sorrow in the 



46 ALLAH KERIM 

world and everything else that is in the 
world cannot undo it now. 

He must flee from this appalling fate which 
had hovered over him so long. His only 
thought was to get away as fast as possible, 
he crept forward and opened the door cau- 
tiously — he peers out looking in every di- 
rection — all is darkness and silence ; he 
creeps softly along the passage — he descends 
the garret stairs — feeling his way by the 
wall — for all is pitch blackness, not a glim- 
mer of light — the boards creaked omin- 
ously beneath his tread ; silently he opens the 
street door — looking hurriedly about him — 
and then — unchallenged by a single voice — 
he hurries through the dimly lighted streets 
clinging close into the shadows of the buildings 
— running at times when the thoroughfare 
appeared deserted — he ran as though he 
were running for his life — rapidly he made 
his way towards the outskirts of the city. 

A soft, gray penetrating mist enveloped 
everything — through which the moon shone 
dimly — forming itself into strange fantastic 
shapes. Suddenly he became aware of the 
sound of footsteps behind him — he glanced 



ALLAH KERIM 47 

over his shoulder — but no one was visible 
— he thought it might be the echo of his own 
steps — he felt disposed to run — he did so — 
and immediately he heard the clatter of some 
one of equal speed, he turned in a very sudden 
manner, glancing keenly in the rear — but no 
living thing was visible — the street was de- 
serted, this aggravated his nervousness, and 
again he started to run — on and on — he went 
until in the distance he saw the shadowy 
lines of a bridge merged into the fog, seemily 
hanging in the air as lightly as a cobweb, its 
arches looking enormously lugubious — across 
the road the moon cast ink black shadows — 
and before him — outlined against the sky 
stood a gigantic Cottonwood — its huge body 
and great arms — swaying back and forth 
against the night's blackness. 

On and on he strode until he reached the 
bridge, those phantom steps still dogging 
him, he could not escape it; walking half-way 
across the bridge, he stopped, he stood mo- 
tionless as if in a trance. 

Around him were the lights of the city, 
twinkling like stars, below him, the river, its 
current running in turbulent waves, dashing 



48 ALLAH KERIM 

and foaming against the rocks, then rushing 
with an angry chute under the arches dash- 
ing against the piles as though to force them 
out of the way, they seemed to babble tragi- 
cally of untold atrocities. 

He stood there watching this chasm in all 
its murkiness, it seemed to woo him, he con- 
templated a fall into that sombre void and 
shade, YES he would dive down into those 
depths below, he would drown in that black- 
ness! At this moment he heard a sound that 
shook his very soul! It was but the bells of 
Trinity chiming the hour of three, to him 
their sound was the most solemn and touch- 
ing of all sounds, it was like some VAST 
VOICE uttering a word through the night 
LOST! LOST! LOST! Immediately one 
clock after another took up the sound until 
it seemed to him that VOICES, some mourn- 
ful and beseeching, OTHERS solemn and de- 
nouncing, were crying to him from all parts 
of the universe! LOST! LOST! LOST! 

The bells chimed and tinkled from every 
quarter, but to his ears those awful bells 
tolled loud and dismal, echoing and vibrating 
through his brain until he was nearly crazed, 



ALLAH KERIM 49 

each moment their vibrations became more 
violent and the sounds they produced grew 
louder and louder, till they reached a shrill 
wild cry that rang in his ears with a shrill cry 
of warning. Then came a pause, then a deep 
shuddering groan, the sound of the last stroke 
died away, only a faint echo remaining. 

He stretched out his arms, and then broke 
out in words of despair, in a passion of self- 
reproach, "Oh! what have I done? WHAT 
HAVE I DONE? WHAT SHALL I DO? 
OH! WHAT SHALL I DO?" 

He saw no path open to go back, yet 
shrinking more and more every moment, 
when all at once, obeying some inward im- 
pulse, he turned abruptly about, and then, he 
began to run, it seemed as though he was fly- 
ing from himself, from the new and hideous 
form he had taken, he was rushing madly 
back over the course he had trod, he was 
drawn onward by an irresistible power, that 
no will of his could modify or overcome. 

On and on he strode into the city from 
which he had so fearfully fled, on into the 
place, which had been his curse, on and on 
through the gloomy streets he moved until 



50 ALLAH KERIM 

the red glare of the light above the street 
door told him he was outside his own hovel, 
he opened the door, and began climbing 
those stairs. What a long, fearful ascent! 
He reached the door, his haggard face white 
with fear, his eyes large and full of a strange 
gleam, clutching his hands together with a 
nervous motion, he pushed the door softly 
OPEN, and crept in. 

Through the window, the moonlight shone, 
and rested full upon that lifeless heap upon 
the floor. A shudder of repulsion passed 
over him as he gazed upon that distorted face 
those wide-open staring eyes! He stood 
there staring at it like one gone mad, when 
suddenly a superstitious dread took posses- 
sion of him, and he fled to the farthest corner 
of the room, he crouched down and hid his 
face, shivering with an awful fear. 

The moon, whose light had been steadily 
growing dimmer, faded from sight, and the 
darkness, worst of all terrors to the guilty 
mind, enveloped all. In half -awaking re- 
morse, he talked, but knew not what he said, 
sometimes he cried, and again he laughed, 
uttering shrieks of wild frantic laughter that 



ALLAH KERIM 51 

was dreadful to hear, he never ceased, until 
his overtasked nature gave way, and he sank 
into a stupor, still his crime ever hovered 
about him like the furies that followed the 
footsteps of Orestes. 

The mind is a chaos of fancies, desires and 
temptations. A furnace of dreams, a Den of 
shameful ideas — a pandemonium of passion's 
battle-field! 

Conscience has a terrible tenacity of life; 
and when it seems to have been killed, it is 
not yet dead, BUT ONLY SLEEPETH! 

"Oh, what a fate is guilt! How wild, how wretched! 
When apprehension can form naught but Fears." 

Howard 



52 ALLAH KERIM 



CHAPTER V 

"Like one who dreams of harm befalling him, 
And dreaming wishes it may be a dream, 
Desiring that which is as though it were not." 

Dante 

Imagination perhaps never works so pow- 
erfully as in the dreams which haunt the 
guilty mind. The blood they shed is still 
liquid before them, each drop appearing as a 
terrible accuser, it is in darkness that ''hor- 
rors on horror's head accumulate' ' being their 
last waking thoughts it is reproduced in their 
dreams, and here they repeat forever the 
awful crime in which their last moments had 
been spent. 

In the dream which came to him, he was 
walking along a very narrow and rocky foot- 
path which skirted the outermost verge of a 
cliff, its gloomy portal dropping perpendic- 
ularly a hundred feet to a region of wonder- 
ous waterfall and torrents that rushed amidst 
huge rocks, sending up to him a dreadful 
note of warning in its threatening monotone. 



ALLAH KERIM 53 

The passage became narrow and dangerous 
as he trudged onward and upward, huge 
fallen rocks were heaped before him in wild 
confusion, his only foothold these insecure 
rocks, which the moment after dropped away, 
rattling and clattering till lost to hearing ; he 
found that the higher he climbed the more 
toilsome and dangerous the ascent. 

He walked along precipices that hung over 
the valley like vast shelves, one rising above 
the other, leaving but a narrow ledge between, 
in which were great fissures, over these he 
had to leap, one false step meaning instant 
death. 

At length he came upon a great rock cast- 
ing a portentous shadow, he looked below, 
could he ever get back? No it was im- 
possible! THERE WAS NO TURNING 
BACK! He looked upward, COULD HE 
CLIMB HIGHER? Ah! whatever point we 
may have reached, there is still a higher point 
to gain. No matter what may happen, HE 
MUST KEEP ON! 

He traveled on until he reached a recess 
between overhanging cliffs, he saw before him 
a narrow crevice through the rock to a ledge 



54 ALLAH KERIM 

beyond, along this crevice he crawled on his 
hands and knees until he reached the outer 
edge of the shelf, he was on the verge of a 
fearful precipice, the awful height of which 
made his head whirl, he had to lie down to 
keep from tumbling from the ledge, clutch- 
ing the rocks with a death-grip he peered 
over into the abyss beneath, he perceived 
that the rock on which he lay was but a pro- 
jecting shelf a foot or so in thickness, should 
this table-rock yield beneath his weight he 
would be hurled through mid-air into a ter- 
rible gulf. 

Out beyond was empty air. Down below, 
all was miniature, the wild, rock-filled gorges 
looked but tiny gutters, the forests, shrub- 
bery. He was so high that no sounds from 
below could be heard. His brain reeled as he 
gazed into this solemn solitude, he shrank 
back from the dizzy verge appalled, YET, 
how grand to view the wide-spread landscape 
before him! 

Blue ragged outlines of granite spurs, a 
bewildering sea of peaks upon which seems to 
rest the blue vault of heaven. The sunset 
came, redly burning in the West, and as its 



ALLAH KERIM 55 

last rays were gilding these stupendous spurs, 
when LO! there came from the highest peak 
a loud VOICE which said "PRAISED BE 
THE LORD." Then another and another 
and still another until from every mountain 
peak the words were repeated "PRAISED 
BE THE LORD," the echo sounded from 
rock to rock repeating the NAME of GOD. 

It filled his soul with awe, and a great fear — 
tremblingly he crawled away from that dread- 
ful verge, feeling along trying to find some 
way to descend, when suddenly he felt him- 
self sinking down, down, dow^n out of sight, 
he was precipitated into a dark pit, he sought 
to ascend, when he fell again and deeper, in 
an agony of fear, he rushed hither and thither 
only to fall a third time and still deeper, 
everything went spinning round him, he saw 
nothing, he heard nothing, till at last there 
came a sound, a squeaking and chattering, a 
grinding of teeth, it was absolutely blood- 
freezing, then something struck against him, 
he was frantic with horror, then he heard 
groans and shrieks, as if souls in torture. 
Now a wide chasm opened before him, through 
which issued forth the figure of DEATH, 



56 ALLAH KERIM 

holding in his unyielding clutch a struggling 
MORTAL, on whose face the swollen veins 
and drops of sweat told the horror and de- 
pair of the soul, the head thrown violently 
upward, as though attempting to avoid the 
sight of the exultant monster that was drag- 
ging it to death. 

After this there came forth a skeleton, fol- 
lowed by another and another, they were of 
all forms and sizes, from that of the man of 
gigantic stature, to that of the tiny infant, 
falling into file these bare, blanched bones 
marched slowly up through the crypt, there 
was no end to the marching of the dead from 
those regions below, they seemed to be flow- 
ing on, forever on like a river. They shook 
their unfleshed hands at him pointing at him 
scornfully with their wan fingers as they 
passed by, the void sockets of their skulls 
were filled with glaring eyes that gazed men- 
acingly upon him, they marched in solemn 
procession through the cavern and then 
ranged themselves before him, they danced 
and jostled each other, cutting the most 
grotesque capers, wagging their heads mock- 
ingly at him, flinging out their legs, and wav- 



ALLAH KERIM 57 

ing and flourishing their arm-bones to and 
fro, as if in impatience, or anger, or in pain. 
And thus they capered, screamed, and fought 
and in their ferocity, they tore off each 
others heads and arms, which at once grew 
on again, and after they had dismembered 
one another twenty or thirty times all round, 
they burst into a mirthless discordant laugh, 
a laugh growing louder and louder, that 
echoed back and forth until it seemed that a 
demoniacal host were enjoying the wildest 
and most unearthly of revels, they pointed at 
him with the air of avenging furies, and then 
came a voice, which sounded as if speaking 
from some great height, "LOOK UPON 
YOUR WORK!" and again came that de- 
mon-like laugh, and with the echo of that 
fiendish laugh ringing in his ears he awoke, 
cold drops of agony stood out upon his fore- 
head, he opened his eyes slowly, the pale 
dawn shows gray in at the window, not a 
sound to break the awful stillness, then as 
memory returned to him, he sprang up and 
looked about him. "YES, IT WAS TRUE. 
IT WAS THERE!" 
Alas! who can undo the evil they have 



58 ALLAH KERIM 

wrought, FATE you may resist, but you 
cannot conquer it. 

These stupendous succession of horrors so 
unnatural and terrible, was too much for his 
overtaxed nervous frame, and he fell back 
with a groan, wild-eyed, as one utterly be- 
wildered, he raved madly, with half-intelli- 
gible utterances that froze one with horror to 
hear. 

What regions of TORTURE, we must 
suffer, TO MAKE US WHAT WE ARE! 

"March — March — March! 
Earth groans as they tread! 
Each carries a skull, 
Going down to the dead! 
Every stride, every stamp, 
Every footfall bolder; 
Tis a skeleton tramp! 
With a skull on his shoulder! 
But LO! how he steps 
With a high-tossing head, 
That clay-covered bone, 
Going down to the dead!" 



CHAPTER VI 

"Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace 
And rest can never dwell ; hope never comes, 
That comes to all: But torture without end 
Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed 
With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed — " 

Milton 

Not a sound broke the stillness, not a 
window jarred, nor a door creaked; not so 
much as a breath from the chill wind that 
complained without. 

Presently the silence was broken by the 
sound of footsteps, then voices, again silence, 
then a black shadow loomed up in the door- 
way, then another. 

A neighbor not having seen them for two 
days reported to the police, upon open- 
ing the door they looked upon a terrible 
spectacle! In the middle of the room lay the 
dead woman half eaten by rats, while in the 
corner crouched the boy, staring before him 
vacantly. 

"Why, the lad's clean daffy!" exclaimed the 
neighbor. 

59 



60 ALLAH KERIM 

A hand was laid upon his shrinking 
shoulder, a hand that closed down like a vice, 
the hand of the LAW! He left that grim 
room in the custody of the police, arrested 
for the murder of his mother. As he issued 
forth into the street, windows were opened, 
and heads thrust out on all sides; it was im- 
possible to say where the people came from, 
but in a short time the street was blocked 
with a crowd that gathered round the door. 

He was taken to a dismal pile called the 
"Tombs" a long, narrow, lofty building. Upon 
entering, he gazed around as one in a dream, 
he saw four galleries running round it, one 
above the other, communicating by stairs. 
Between the two sides of each gallery and in 
its center, a bridge, on each of these bridges 
sat a man. The whole was lighted by a sky- 
light fast closed; from the roof there dangled 
limp and drooping two useless wind sails. 

On each side of him were rows of small iron 
doors, in which were square apertures, 
through these, women peeped anxiously. He 
was taken before one of these doors, the fast- 
enings jar and rattle, it turns slowly on its 
hinges, he saw before him a small bare cell, in 



ALLAH KERIM 61 

which was a bedstead, he then passed through 
and into a gateway which leads to the State 
Prisons. 

He was kept here for months, forced into 
close contact with offenders of all grades of 
guilt, from the timorous young who have 
taken their first step in wrong doing, to the 
old and hardened offender who boasts of his 
deeds, and who pollute with their wickedness 
those with whom they come in contact. A 
dreadful place to pass long days and nights, a 
place where there is no decent provision of 
personal cleanliness, and where the air is foul 
with sickening stenches. 

He was gazed at by the curious, and scoffed 
at by the unfeeling, he was forced in self-de- 
fense to hurl back words of scorn, which were 
prompted by his evil passions of hate. 

When the boy was brought to trial and the 
Judge asked him "His name?" he answered 
listlessly, 'They calls me THE VIPER." 

"Have you no father? "continued the Judge. 

"Never had any on hand as I knows of," 
he replied stupidly. 

When he was asked if he was guilty or not? 
he made no reply, of what use were words. 



62 ALLAH KERIM 

He sat there, day after day, white and 
silent, for he had not spoken since. Seeing 
before him nothing but hostile faces, no one 
saw anything good in that poor face, and he 
remembering all the rubs and knocks which 
had fallen to his share, a great hatred of man- 
kind gazed out of his eyes upon that throng 
beneath him, a throng no less murderously 
disposed towards him, who called him, "A 
hard nut." 

On the last day of his trial, when the Judge 
rose to pronounce his sentence, he leaned for- 
ward to hear his fate, "What was he saying?" 
he was sentenced to "Hard labor for twenty 
years." The whole stress of the charges 
against him was laid on, Not what he had 
done, but what he MIGHT DO! Imprison- 
ment is intimidation from crime, not the im- 
provement of criminals. 

When he heard these words, he shuddered, 
his face deepening in its pallor then it grew 
dark and surly as he muttered to himself: 
"Well, that's always the way, the poor they 
has no chance, they has ter PAY THE 
PRICE!" 

The intricate workings of a boy's soul can- 



ALLAH KERIM 63 

not be exhibited to judges or juries, for 
treatment had made him surly, and poverty, 
UGLY! 

He was now a criminal, a convict reduced 
to simple classification No. 31999. Society 
regards prisoners as mere outcasts, as such, 
he was treated as a brute, he was thrust inside 
such a cage as is used for wild beasts. The 
hideous clank of the chain jeered and mocked 
him, it galled him to be a convict, it bred in 
him a violent resentment, then the wolf was 
roused within him, and he felt a wild desire to 
become what they believed him to be. 

'They treat me as though I was a devil," 
he said in a husky whisper. "Very well, from 
now on I'll show them what a devil can do!" 

The hot fires of his nature were wholly 
aroused, his soul was filled with a fierce de- 
termination, evil for evil, abuse for abuse. 
The old tiger within him rages, he made up 
his mind, "That they could not force him to 
do what he did not want to do! You may 
lead a horse to water but you can't make him 
drink." 

His whole soul was now intent on executing 
some plan to cause trouble, the more trouble 



64 ALLAH KERIM 

the better. He began by pricking his gums, 
swearing he was bleeding at the lungs; then 
again he would lie for days in his cell, refus- 
ing to rise, declaring with awful blasphemies 
his inability to move. Next he would steal 
soap, making pills for frothing at the mouth, 
going into sham fits. Immediately after 
this he invented methods of self-injury; in 
some way he would get possession of a piece 
of broken glass, when with the quickness of a 
cat he would inflict a terrible gash across an 
artery, and lie bleeding to death ; when taken 
to the infirmary, he resorted to every device 
that might cause trouble to his attendants, 
sometimes he would lie and scream for help, 
until assistance was close upon him, when he 
would sit up and with unerring aim fling at 
the persons head everything within reach. 
At another time he dropped suddenly out of 
bed and with an ell-like writhe made for the 
bedside of the other patients, and there he 
would smash basins, bottles, everything in 
sight; his attendants found he was not an 
unresisting sufferer of injuries. When taken 
back to his cell, he would arouse the whole 
prison with his howls, shrieks and demoniac 



ALLAH KERIM 65 

yells that issued from his cell; he would tear 
or break to pieces everything that he could 
lay his hands on; he became one of the most 
troublesome of all the prisoners, thus prov- 
ing what one can do when they determine to 
make themselves formidable. 

How many times was he subjected to the 
torture of the straps, how many times was he 
knocked down by the guards, it was abuse 
for abuse, but it did not subdue his rebellious 
soul, it only reacted, and inflamed that which 
it was intended to remove. "He swore," 
with a mighty oath, "that he would not work, 
and that no human BEING could make 
HIM WORK!" 

The warden decided to take him to the 
ladder and see if that would not make him 
change his mind. 

"Suppose you do, WHAT THEN?" The 
guards took him to where a ladder leaned 
against the wall ; it was bolted at the bottom 
to the floor, and at the top to the wall. The 
warden ordered him "TO STRIP." He 
looked around at the warden, in his eyes an 
expression of defiance as he said: "If you 
want me stripped, do it YOURSELF." 



66 ALLAH KERIM 

The guards used brutal violence in strip- 
ping him, they stripped off all his clothes, 
and he stood there before them nude, they 
dragged him to the ladder, they jerked him 
off the floor, strapping his arms to the top of 
the ladder, then they strapped his legs, and 
thus he was put upon the rack. 

The warden said to the guard, "Hand me 
the whip!" and with the whip held firmly in 
his hand he stepped up to the boy and said, 
"I'll give you one more chance, will you go to 
work?" The boy raised his sullen eyes and 
looked into those eyes before him, and an- 
swered angrily, "NO! I tell you, and I mean 
what I say." 

"Very well," replied the warden, and 
stepping back he raised the whip, it came 
down with a sharp sting, leaving its mark 
upon his body. Lash on lash descended 
upon this helpless victim, until his back and 
shoulders were streaked with swollen and livid 
lines. Again the warden in the act of inflict- 
ing another blow exclaimed: "Now DAMN 
YOU, WILL YOU GO TO WORK?" 

The boy turned his head slowly, the blood 
shot up in his forehead till the veins roughly 



ALLAH KERIM 67 

ridged it, his eyes flashed with a fury of 
passion, as he gave way to a perfect tempest 
of rage. "YOU COWARD! YOU LOW 
DOWN DIRTY COWARD! YOU TIE ME 
UP LIKE A DOG ! YOU WHIP ME WHEN 
I'M HELPLESS ! WELL, DAMN YOU, 
KEEP ON WHIPPING ME! FOR I SAY, 
NO! I'LL DIE FIRST!" 

In brutal rage the warden whipped his 
helpless victim, he beat him as though he ex- 
pected to make a new organization of a hu- 
man soul by torture, in fierce unbridled tem- 
per he whipped him until the blood trickled 
slowly from his wounds, till at last his whole 
back was wet with blood, a tiny stream was 
flowing down his legs, and dripping, drop by 
drop, off his toes on to the floor, an awful 
crimson stain that was slowly, spreading, 
creeping, forming itself into an ominous pool 
beneath him. 

His head now hung between the rounds, 
his bloodshot eyes spoke of repressed and 
unutterable anguish, then all is black before 
him, his ears are full of a roaring sound, all 
sense of feeling reeled, and he knew no more. 
Alas! this hour left its permanent mark upon 



68 ALLAH KERIM 

him, the iron had indeed "entered into his 
soul." Whatever he might have been, is 
past! " Oppression maketh a MAN MAD" 
and kills the soul-life. 

He was ordered thrown into the dungeon 
and there wounded, bruised and bleeding, 
he was locked up like a beast, kept there all 
day and night, with nothing to eat, also with 
nothing to cover his body. He was now in 
the hands of ONE who made him pay the 
price. 

On the following morning the warden 
came, and again said to him: "Are you ready 
to go to work?" 

At these words, the boy looked around in a 
dazed way, his mouth was tight set, in his 
eyes — what depths of suffering! As he gazed 
upon that face, there came a revulsion of 
feeling, instant, complete, and hideous; his 
face became livid, every drop of blood left his 
cheeks, his breath came sharper and quicker, 
his rage was so great that for a minute he 
could not speak, he confronted the warden 
like a maniac, and there the two stood glar- 
ing upon each other, then he burst out, he 
ejected the sentences with an energy that was 



ALLAH KERIM 69 

fierce: "I'll tell you again, and I'll tell you 
the same as long as I have breath to speak, 
NO! I say, NO, NEVER! I'LL ROT IN 
HELL BEFORE I'D GIVE IN TO SUCH 
HOUNDS AS YOU!" 

Oaths poured from the warden's lips, in his 
rage, he struck him down, then stood over 
him contemptuously, and kicked him. "How 
dared that shrimp DEFY THE LAW!" 

To punish him for doing so, he had him 
chained to the dungeon floor, where he was 
fed on bread and water. It was indeed to 
him a 

Dire dungeon — Place of doom, 
Where compassion never enters; 
But LAW clanks the chain. 
He drank the cup of wormwood. 
Why — Oh — Why was he ever born? 
A fathomless tragedy — Who can tell. 

Who is the Conqueror? Has one man the 
right to punish another man? Has any man 
the right to torture a human soul? NO! it is 
a direct disobedience to God's established 
order and command, who said: "All the 
punishing of my family belongs to ME, as 
MY sole prerogative/ f 



70 ALLAH KERIM 

If this man is vile, is it not the system 
which has made him so? The laws are re- 
sponsible for the moral debasement of the 
people, so far from checking crime, it nour- 
ishes vice, and teaches the arts by which men 
prey upon one another. 



CHAPTER VII 

"With pallid cheeks and haggard eyes, 
And loud laments and heartfelt sighs, 
Unpitied, hopeless of relief, 
He drinks the cup of bitter grief.' ' 

Anon. 

At last the portals of the Satanic Gates 
were unlocked, he was liberated, he might 
now tread where he pleased. 

As he issued forth, he staggered, his frame 
was thin to emaciation, his face sallow to 
cadaverousness, as he shuffled along pain- 
fully and laboriously in the shadows, a dark 
figure followed noiselessly, a figure that will 
henceforth hound him till death, for was he 
not a convict, a criminal, a man to be dis- 
trusted, a man to be kicked out, treated less 
than A DOG! 

He stopped and looked back upon the 
prison walls, and up to the windows, from 
which the lights glowed with a lurid and 
dusky gleam through the darkness like the 
eyes of fiends glaring after him with deadly 

71 



72 ALLAH KERIM 

hatred; he staggered along hurriedly, as if 
afraid of a hand that might again grasp him, 
then he passed out of sight into the gloom. 

He came out, as he went in, with angry 
and hateful thoughts against his fellow men; 
with feelings which none but an emancipated 
captive can fully understand. 

Twenty years ago, he was but a quivering 
boy, today he was a man without reverence 
for anything on the earth, or under it; he was 
without any trace of conscience, nowhere any 
sense of sin. 

Can twenty years of punishment against a 
rebellious soul inspire it with better thoughts? 
Can hatred be overcome by hatred? NO! 
" Hatred never ceases by hatred, but by 
LOVE." 

Everywhere he went, he was met by hostile 
and suspicious glances, many times the door 
was slammed in his face. In all his wretched 
life, it had been the same, nothing but cold 
looks of distrust and suspicion. 

Unable to work, he wandered around the 
city in an aimless way, he strolled from place 
to place, roaming until a late hour amid the 
lights and shadows of the populous city, he 



ALLAH KERIM 73 

hung around old haunts, undecided what to 
do, feeling himself shadowed, hunted, some- 
thing of the old tiger was roused within him. 

Often in bitter moments — he wandered off 
into a fit of musing: the past, what did he see 
in it? 

Back went his thought to the first years of 
his life, passed in terror of his mother's 
cruelty. All the terrible dreams of his child- 
hood were brought back to him, the curses of 
his mother, his twenty years of paying the 
price. Stormy thoughts swept through him 
as he brooded upon that which was gruesome, 
and which no lapse of years would ever blot 
out. He had indeed shut himself up in no 
garden of thought. 

As he meditated upon that which was past, 
he gave utterance to his thoughts in an ab- 
stract manner: "What is done, is done. I 
cannot re-live my life. Even if I could; per- 
haps I would do the same. We are as we are." 
"ALLAH AALEM" (It's in me.) 

In life each must learn for themselves, and 
the learning will be the result of our own ex- 
perience, not that of another. 

For a long time he remained in a study, as 



74 ALLAH KERIM 

if reflecting upon some difficult question, 
then continued in his soliloquy: 'There was 
one thing certain, he must in some way get a 
living, either by his own work, or somebody's 
work." The question to him was: "What 
had the world to offer such as he?" He 
knew there were but few industries open to 
convicts who wanted to work. But did he 
want to work? Could any man by the sweat 
of his brow make a fortune? NO! "Hard 
work never made money." Then why should 
he toil? 

He saw that the world was a market, a 
conflict between Capital and Labor, a barter 
which never ceases, wherein the many were 
the slaves to the few, enabling the few to ac- 
cumulate great wealth, while the great masses 
are doomed to incessant toil and want." 
"JUSTICE TO ALL," he said in a tone of 
contempt, his lips curling scornfully, "Where 
is your Justice?" Was it not a thing of price 
and purchase? and he smiled bitterly. Did 
he not know that men got into jail not be- 
cause they steal, but because they did not 
STEAL ENOUGH! JUSTICE, he added 
cornfully. You talk about YOUR JUS- 



ALLAH KERIM 75 

TICE! Why a million injustices are com- 
mitted every day, to which the people close 
their eyes! and he laughed scornfully. 

And your LAWS! and he smiled a sarcastic 
smile. What is LAW? Why the very word 
means wicked power! Trace it link by link, 
phrase by phrase, chase its shadow until you 
find its substance, and what, WHAT HAVE 
YOU FOUND? That laws are like Spiders 1 
webs, which catch the small flies, BUT LET 
THE GREAT ONES BREAK THROUGH! 

To the poor it is like a magical stream ; once 
wet your foot in it, and you needs must walk 
on, until you are overwhelmed in its endless 
stormy waters. It is the opportunity of evil 
to get the better of goodness! He smiled 
bitterly as he thought of these things, for 
was he not one of the many who had suffered 
the tortures of HELL THROUGH THE 
LAW! 

He continued in his musings: "I am alone. 
I am nothing to any one who lives. Not one 
is anything to me. For myself, there is but 
myself.' ' Then he paused; a sudden idea 
made his eyes gleam. From now on I shall 
lay hands on what money I can get. Nothing 



76 ALLAH KERIM 

shall be allowed to stand in my way. Money 
at the cost of everything! FOR MONEY IS 
POWER. Let them catch me who can. 

Strange thoughts and speculations crowded 
through his mind as he strolled down the 
street, meditating upon those who have, and 
those who have not, at this point, his thoughts 
were interrupted by a voice at his side, turn- 
ing his head, he saw one whom he had known 
in the past, drawing him aside, a long and 
rather vehement whispering conversation was 
carried on, after which the man turned and 
hurried away and was shortly lost in the 
crowd. The Viper stood chuckling and rub- 
bing his hands ; at last he had found an oppor- 
tunity, one which he did not hesitate to profit 
by. He was weak of body, but his will was 
forward, and what was wanting in health was 
supplied by zeal, retracing his steps to a cer- 
tain rendezvous, he there became an agent 
selling certificates of naturalization. 

He sold these papers in beer cellars for a 
nominal sum to anyone who applied: upon 
assurance that they should be used for the 
Democratic Party ; he sold within a few weeks 
5,000 of these fraudulent certificates. 



ALLAH KERIM 77 

These papers were granted in some of the 
Courts without investigation, signed and 
sealed, leaving blanks for the names of the 
applicant and his voucher. Forty thousand 
persons were naturalized within a short time 
preceding the election. 

In his wanderings from place to place, he 
kept his eyes and ears open, watching with 
shrewdness that which was going on about 
him, for he meant "to get at the bottom of 
every thing.' ' He found himself in the midst 
of a political conflict, no matter where he 
went he saw candidates hanging around, on 
every side he heard earnest argument, pas- 
sionate appeal, jest, defiance, retort, oaths, 
laughter, "taking a drink", all condescending 
to low arts of bargain and barter and cor- 
ruption, it was a case of buying, bribing and 
cajoling votes. No kind of bribery was 
spared, bald money if money would be taken; 
if not, then money in other forms; sales of 
offices under some form, as of political and 
personal support, or of money for influence. 
"He was all things to all men." He crawls 
that he may rise. 

He heard false issues raised and lustily 



78 ALLAH KERIM 

cheered. He listened to the noblest appeals 
to stand by the grand old party, and to main- 
tain the time-honored principles, and to keep 
the proud flag of no surrender flying: under 
which in the back room the "SWAG" was 
pleasantly divided. He heard men eloquent 
for LIBERTY, but whose own temper was 
the temper of TYRANNY! Satan, can 
clothe himself as an angel of light, and so vice 
assumes the guise of virtue, great words are 
thus bandied about in political circles till 
they are soiled by irreverent associations, 
and then, according to that fine saying of 
Lord Bacon: "Like a Tartar's bow they shoot 
backward, and mightily entangle the judg- 
ment of those who use them." 

He saw that the politics of the city was 
completely debauched. Every influential 
thief, gambler, and ward politician rolled in 
money, and shone in diamonds and costly 
chains. A carnival of vice reigned in every 
quarter of the city. 

Seeing this, he calculated with shrewdness, 
as he said: "I hold within my hand, that 
which will make me, WHAT I CHOOSE." 



CHAPTER VIII 

"Vice is a monster of so frightful a mien, 
As, to be hated, needs to be seen; 
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, 
We first endure, then pity, then embrace." 

Pope 

A caucus of the Democratic electors was 
being held in the ' - Pig Pen . " 1 1 had been called 
for the purpose of nominating state officers 
and members of legislature. 

The candidates and their friends arrived 
at the hall at least an hour before the hour of 
meeting. Ireland always shrewd in such 
matters, moved that Michael McClutchen 
take the chair, which gave to Ireland 
the organization. Germany was conciliated 
by the appointment of Louis Seidel as 
secretary. 

Nominations being in order, up popped 
a wiry little Hebrew who said: "Mr. Chair- 
man, der is nine tousand Jews in der city, 
and dey expect to be remembered in making 
up de dicket! De Hebrews hain't been 

79 



80 ALLAH KERIM 

treated right, and I chust vants ter tell you 
dat dem nine tousant votes has got to be con- 
sitert." 

Next a burly Teuton: Misder Jairman, vot 
if der pe nine tousant Choos? Vot of it? I 
chust vants to tell dat chentleman dat der 
ish fifteen tousant Chermans in der city, and 
dat dey ish choing to have someting to say 
about dese nominations! If dey ish'nt cho- 
ing to get deir share, dey chust bust up der 
dicket, YOU BETS." 

Germany having sunk to repose, a brawny 
son of "the old sod" took the floor, and in a 
tone of mingled respect and menace said: 
"Mr. Chairman, I know there's a good many 
Jews and Germans in the city and they all 
go the regular ticket like good Dimmicrats, 
and have had their share of the offices. There 
may be nine thousand Jews, and there may 
be fifteen thousand Germans. But I can tell 
them gents that there's thirty-five thousand 
Irishmen in this city, and I'd jist like 'em to 
tell me how they're going to elect a Jew, or a 
Dutchman, or any other man without them? 
It's all very pretty to talk, but kin ye do it? 
We've got more of the voters than all of ye 



ALLAH KERiM 81 

PUT TOGETHER, and we expect half the 
ticket, AT LASTE!" 

Symptoms of confusion began to arise, 
and the caucus bid fair to break up in any- 
thing but a celestial temper. At this junc- 
ture, the Viper appeared in the doorway; the 
attention of the mob was arrested by this 
thin-looking, thin-chested piece of humanity; 
"Fellow citizens" he called out, "Hear me," 
he waved his right hand to command silence, 
then proceeded: "I'd like to ask if there's any 
chance for an AMERICAN on that ticket?" 

This insolent inquiry aroused the indigna- 
tion of those present, who instantly shouted: 
"PUT HIM OUT! PUT HIM OUT! 
THROW HIM DOWN STAIRS!" and they 
yelled, and hooted and hissed. 

The contemptuous manner in w r hich he was 
received roused within him a paroxysm of 
rage, he shook his fist at them and shouted 
in a voice choking with concentrated passion! 
"YOU SCUM of the earth! Damn you, the 
day will come, when 111 make you hear me!" 

The mob sprang up with oaths, he was in- 
stantly surrounded, a struggle commenced, 
he was overcome, and kicked down the stairs! 



82 ALLAH KERIM 

He picked himself up furious with anger, 
cursing everybody and everything, he limped 
away brooding upon that which had tran- 
spired, strange suggestions were running 
through his mind HOW and WHAT? 

He fell into an uneasy and reckless walk, 
he wandered aimlessly through dingy alleys 
paved with mud, where strolling old women, 
who smell of gin and tobacco swarm in and 
out. He strolled past underground dens, 
where they dance and game, from which 
issued peals of laughter, hollow and false, the 
mocking mirth that comes from SIN, a mel- 
ody of discordant sounds. He saw women 
in the depth of infamy, women who were 
profane, repulsive, slaves to drink and de- 
bauchery, all wallowing in the SLOUGH of 
DESPOND. 

As he rambled on, the bitterness grew 
within him, he turned down a street that 
seemed a pandemomium, filled with a vast 
horde, countless, ill-fed, ill-clad, uneducated 
and miserable, who resembled nocturnal crea- 
tures groping in the unseen worlds and astray 
in the shady subterraneans, almost beasts, 
part phantoms, howling, seeking and gnawing 



ALLAH KERIM 83 

its way, making CREATION ugly and dark- 
ening the face of HEAVEN. A TERRIBLE 
PARADISE THIS GODDESS OF POV- 
ERTY! Where one may see the lagging 
tramp of millions, day after day, all trending 
towards frightful caverns of DESPAIR; and 
ending in the WILDERNESS OF DEATH. 

He wended his way past hidden haunts of 
darkest vice, dens of ill repute, where the 
skulkers are fierce, petty and uncleanly, a 
class who abandons itself to courses that 
stifle the sentiments of humanity, disease 
breeders, reduced to mere brutality, where 
there is no pretence of good. Here you will 
find diseased prostitutes with their victims 
and associates, wretches half-idiotic through 
debaucheries, lame, maimed and blind, a revel- 
ling and blasphemous crowd, whose souls are 
tossed like a tempest upon the vast waves of 
passion. What billows of flame are ever 
rolling through them. What despair and 
what agony rack the mind. A tragical scene 
of sights and sounds. 

"Talk of the flames of Hell, 
We build, ourselves I conceive 
The fire the fiend lights — " 



84 ALLAH KERIM 

He trudged along a villainous region of 
old wharves, coal-yards, tenement houses and 
low groggeries, there was an incessant swing- 
ing of saloon doors, where all was dancing 
and gambling as if Sodom and Gomorrah had 
shaken off his ashes. Before him stood the 
old brewery, towering high above this mass 
of corruption, a tottering, filthy old building, 
with yawning seams in its walls, and poverty 
glaring from its ragged windows, with it is 
associated some of the most appalling crimes 
that were ever perpetrated ; could these walls 
speak, what tales they might tell, the place 
seems suggestive of heinous crimes, suddenly 
there flashed before his mind with vividness 
the remembrance of the woman who had 
poisoned twenty persons, the children of four 
families, her own mother, two husbands, and 
a man with whom she lived. He thought 
of the mother who deliberately shot her 
own son, a boy thirteen years old. Mul- 
titudinous billows of thought flashed through 
his brain, tinged with hues of the horrible. 
Again there came to him thoughts of all the 
violent deaths of the past year, of the hun- 
dreds of infants found dead in these alleys,. 



ALLAH KERIM, 85 

and the scores of murders which are com- 
mitted and nobody the wiser. 

It is an old proverb, "Murder will out, the 
stones will not hide, the heavens will not 
cover it, the reeds will speak, the walls will 
whisper it." But in later days, I might say, 
in our boasted twentieth century, with all 
our high civilization, so to speak, the rule 
seems to be reversed. New York City alone 
has furnished its quota of contradictions of 
the old saying, for instance there is the 
Nathan murder, the Burdell murder, the 
Manhattan Well murder, the disappearance 
of Chief Justice Lansing. 

He stood for some time lost in deep thought, 
his anger had now subsided, when a sudden 
idea appeared to strike him, and turning 
abruptly, he retraced his steps and once 
again entered that rendezvous which he had 
entered on a previous occasion, he had de- 
cided to play his best card and perhaps take 
a trick. 

Selling certificates had resulted in the dis- 
covery of the plot formed in the city to carry 
the State in the election for the Democratic 
Party. 



86 ALLAH KERIM 

He knew all about the "ring" and also 
about the "boss" who had used his popular- 
ity as a volunteer fireman to advance him- 
self in Tammany, an organization of politi- 
cal notoriety, claiming to be the head of the 
democracy of the nation, and whose theory 
of political action was, that New York was 
to be governed from below, not above; by 
the weight of its ignorance and the strength 
of its corruption; and not by the force of its 
intelligence and virtue. How well he knew 
its established policy, that when no other 
way was open, to boldly BUY ITS WAY TO 
THE SEAT OF AUTHORITY. 

His observations had been keen and to the 
point, therefore he understood clearly that 
Tammany's power was the result of the well- 
regulated machine which it had built up 
throughout the city, directed by an omnipo- 
tent "boss". Each of the assembly dis- 
tricts into which the city was divided, sends 
a certain number of representatives to the 
General Committee of Tammany Hall. Each 
district has a "boss" having one or more muni- 
cipal offices at his disposal, and who also han- 
dles the election money spent in the precinct. 



ALLAH KERIM 87 

He was well informed as to when a "politi- 
cal machine" was in perfect order, that is to 
say when a few managers control "regular 
action' ' so that they can nominate any can- 
didate whom they may select. 

He perceived that the rule was to look for 
a rich candidate, some one who had made a 
lucky speculation, one who would be flattered 
by the nomination, and eager to draw 
checks for thousands of dollars, he knew 
of one instance where the candidate drew 
checks to the amount of sixty thousand 
dollars. 

He saw that the "machine' ' made any igno- 
rant quack who was willing to pay, a mem- 
ber of Congress. And so it is that money 
buys legislatures, bribes courts, and both 
makes and interprets the laws. 

Having full knowledge of the "boss" of 
Tammany, who had the party machinery in 
his hands, and who dictated nominations for 
the party to suit himself, for did he not se- 
cure the election of accomplices in the Mayor- 
alty and the other admistrative offices, even 
in the Common Council of the city, as well 
as the chief executive office of the State, also 



88 ALLAH KERIM 

in the State legislature, as well as in the 
Judges' seats. 

He was well informed in regard to all 
these matters, for was he not one of the agents 
who sold false naturalization papers, and was 
it not by the issue of these papers and fraud- 
ulent voting that the election resulted in the 
triumph of the Democratic Party by over 
85,000 majority, and the majority rule. But 
only honest majority can rule justly. A man 
who will acquire an office meanly will not fill 
it nobly. 

For nearly an hour, he was engaged in a 
low and impassioned discourse, with a cer- 
tain party. It is needless to detail what oc- 
curred, all that is sufficient to say, he played 
his best card, and took the trick. His turn 
had come at last. 



CHAPTER IX 

"111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates and men decay." 

Goldsmith 

For the first time in seventeen years the 
State government in New York was solidly 
Democratic, and led by the "boss" who had 
complete control of the State government, a 
conspiracy was formed to rob the city treas- 
ury of millions. A plan by which the "boss" 
and his immediate friends could "feather 
their own nests." 

The construction of a new court-house 
was arranged for, the estimated cost of which 
was two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, 
but the real cost of which might be made to 
reach several millions. 

The building was begun. The contractors 
for labor, materials and supplies were re- 
quired to increase their bills. The bills 
were passed by the Board of Supervisors at 
the dictation of the "boss" who was a member 



89 



90 ALLAH KERIM 

of the board. They were audited by his 
tool. The contractors received the amount 
due them and from fifteen to sixty-five per 
cent of the total bills were divided amongst 
themselves. 

It was a plot of sheer stealing, and it was 
successful. As it has been successful in 
hundreds of other cities. 

Now the "boss" who is State Senator as 
well as Commissioner of Public Works, by 
the free use of money, secured the passage of 
a new city charter. The power of auditing 
bills was taken from the Board of Supervisors 
and placed in the hands of a Board of Audit, 
composed of the Mayor, the Comptroller, 
the Commissioner of Parks and the "boss" 
who was Commissioner of Public Works. 

The "ring" had reached the height of 
power. There is nothing in this world so 
corrupting, or so fatal as absolute power. 
The contractors of the new court-house 
were required to make out claims for ima- 
ginary services, and these bills to the amount 
of six millions, were passed at one meeting. 
More than half the amount passed into the 
"itching palms" of the "ring". 



ALLAH KERIM 91 

Before the end of the year, the fraudulent 
expenditures of the court-house had reached 
over eight million dollars. The capitol of 
Albany like the court-house is a permanent 
monument of the immense and inevitable 
jobbery of great public works. These are 
but two of many hundreds that could be 
mentioned. 

To silence criticism the "boss" filled the 
pay-rolls of the city government with multi- 
tudes of men, drawing large salaries, who 
never performed any work; and gave profit- 
able contracts to others at enormous figures, 
checks were given for salaries larger than the 
Governor's. Police justices were given larger 
compensation than the Chief Justice of the 
United States. He gave fifty thousand dol- 
lars worth of coal to the poor; he laid out 
flower beds in the Park and the Battery, and 
mended the paths in the Square. 

The expenses of the city reached twenty- 
four millions of dollars a year, as much as 
under the entire civil list of the United 
States Government. 

Two years flew rapidly. Money came to 
him, the flood-gates of affluence began slowly 



92 ALLAH KERIM 

to rise — with money — society flung its doors 
open to him, and he could come and go at 
pleasure. 

He drew aside the velvet curtain of "fash- 
ionable society' ' and entered the Court of 
Mammon. Here he saw bright masks and 
blazing gems and superb toilettes, all pa- 
rading in deceptive masquerade. A society 
which had the varnish of an outward refine- 
ment laid over its leprosy. A mask which 
covers ghastly diseases and foul sores; but 
which is tenfold more infectious and destruc- 
tive than the shameless wickedness which 
wears no veil to hide its loathsome front. 
"Apples of Sodom/' Lovely fruit — but 
within full of ashes — the poison flower that 
sheds a fatal perfume. 

"Although thou shouldest put on a tunic 
of- foreign silk thou art naked; although thou 
shouldest beautify thyself with gold and 
pearls, and gems, without the beauty of 
Christ thou art unadorned." 

As he came to know the actual situation of 
this society and reflected upon it, he realized 
that it was nothing more or less than a huge 
o r gy> a jargon of licentiousness, a ceaseless 



ALLAH KERIM 93 

carnival of extravagrant dissipation, self- 
indulgence and enjoyment. Nothing but 
fashion and wealth and idleness which warps 
the soul, as it contorts the body, leaving 
nothing but a polished husk of life. Under 
glistening robes was coiled the loathly snake. 
Souls which were sodden with pleasure until 
all trace of God's high image was lost in the 
deformity of art. 

What did he see about him? Greed for 
gold! The idolatry of money! Everywhere 
he saw men pushing and driving and clutch- 
ing after wealth. Greed of the most rapa- 
cious and repelling kind was written on every 
face, the single passion that engrossed these 
men, was the accumulation of property, they 
measured progress by success; MAN BY 
MONEY! 

It seemed to him like a wide-spread Arena, 
into which was cast a mass of Christians, 
who had become corrupted by worldly ma- 
terialism and carnal-mindedness, where life 
was indeed a witches' Carnival, with Satan 
swaying the hearts of those who seem no- 
blest and purest. 

When he entered these magnificient homes, 



94 ALLAH KERIM 

and gazed upon the fine carvings, paintings 
and statuary and tread upon the luxurious 
carpets; and sat upon the richest of uphol- 
stery, he said to himself: "This is a thief's 
house and these are his spoils, stolen, YES 
stolen; but from whom? POOR WIDOWS 
AND STARVING ORPHANS!" After all 
society was nothing more or less than a con- 
spiracy of the rich against the POOR. 



CHAPTER X 

"And Nemesis beholds with awe, 
Ready to seize the poor remains 
That vice has left of all his gains." 

Bishop Hoadley 

The end is not yet, but an end must come, 
first or last to those who remain on the broad 
way of destruction. 'Tor those who venture 
under the Niagara must expect to be 
drenched.' ' 

A rebellion now broke out against the 
''boss" in which the ex-sheriff and a State 
Senator were prominent. The people as a 
rule are but the dupes of bold and designing 
men, who possess a serpent-quile of pander- 
ing to their lusts and passions, and who de- 
ceive them for their own purposes. 

It is the employment of the excellent 
BIRD of our country to cluck all people 
under her wing; therefore New York is a 
foreign city; with an ever shifting and rest- 
less population, drawn from all parts of the 
world, the majority of whom never think for 

95 



96 ALLAH KERIM 

themselves; and who blindly accepts any 
politician whom the daily press may support. 

That newspapers are unduly controlled by 
the counting-room, is shown by the fact that 
during the thirty years' reign of thieves in 
New York; the number of newspapers upon 
the pay-roll of the "Ring" was eighty-nine, 
of which twenty-seven so depended upon the 
plunder for subsistence that when the "Ring" 
was broken they gasped and died. 

It is the PRESS that makes the "POLI- 
TICIAN" as it makes the "SENSATION" 
and the "BOOM". It is within their power 
to decide WHAT SHALL APPEAR, as well 
as, WHAT SHALL BE OMITTED. WHO 
SHALL BE PROMINENT — and who ob- 
scure. By seizing every opportunity to in- 
sert a name, they can create renown; and so 
by omitting a name they can keep it long in 
obscurity. 

"There is a mighty power in merely leav- 
ing things out." 

A mass meeting was held at Coopers In- 
stitute to consider the charges of corruption 
against the city and county officials. A 
committee of seventy was appointed to con- 



ALLAH KERIM 97 

duct a thorough investigation and to carry 
out such measures as should be necessary to 
prevent future frauds. 

When the veil was lifted, and all the de- 
tails of the "Ring" was published in all the 
leading newspapers, the Viper read them with 
feelings that may be easily imagined; he 
recognized at once his own imminent danger; 
and as he was not as yet exposed — he im- 
mediately fled from the city. 

His life was now an aimless drifting about 
in the maze of traffic; full of uncertainty, he 
was a vagabond among idlers; he cared not 
what became of him; he plunged recklessly 
into vices and excesses of all kinds ; his face was 
full of everything hard, bitter and malicious. 

He roamed hither and thither, plunging 
madly from sin to sin, until he reached the 
climax. 

In all his wanderings from place to place, 
he kept track of all that which transpired of 
the "Ring;" again it was proven to him, that 
there was no justice, by the fact, that of all 
those who were implicated in the plot to rob 
the city treasury of millions, only one man 
paid the price. The "Boss" was arrested, 



98 ALLAH KERIM 

tried, and sentenced to twelve years imprison- 
ment on Blackwells Island. While on a visit 
from Ludlow Prison to his home in the cus- 
tody of officers, he escaped; made his way to 
sea in a yacht, was recaptured at Vigo, 
Spain, sent back to prison, where he died; 
and thus ended the career of the "Boss" of 
the "Ring". 

The Viper wandered about, and finally 
arrived in New Orleans, where he joined a 
secret murder society, composed mostly of 
escaped convicts, desperadoes who defied the 
laws, and great criminals; he was now a 
"bravado" he had become so demoralized by 
his vices that any horrible crime was possible. 

Any one who had a grudge to satisfy could 
hire a "bravo" at a charge of five dollars, 
and be assured of the removal of his enemy. 
The latter would be mysteriously murdered and 
it would be impossible to trace the murderer. 

The members of this organization were 
guilty of some of the most flagrant crimes; 
the outrages committed were such as to 
render life insecure. 

The stillness of night bristled with horror; 
cries of murder, the thud of falling blows 



ALLAH KERIM 99 

and the shrieks of women, were familiar 
sounds! Butchery and murder was going on 
everywhere, they were of daily occurrence; 
causing A REIGN OF TERROR! Mer- 
chants and business men of means received 
notices to pay such sums as the society saw 
fit to impose on them, under penalty of death. 

Foremost among the "Bravos" was the 
Viper; he had now committed innumerable 
murders, he was cruel, an inhuman fiend. 
Paint him as black as you will, the sketch 
will be too faint for the original. 

The police were powerless, as no one dared 
to give any information. The chief of police, 
who had been active in his efforts to root out 
the society was sent the regulation ' 'warn- 
ing' ' to desist; but as he did not, he was ex- 
ecuted in one of the most public streets 
shortly after dark. 

At this the people rose in fury; and a citi- 
zens' committee of safety was organized 
headed by the most responsible citizens. 

Nineteen of the supposed murderers were 
arrested, among them the Viper and placed 
on trial. The result of which was a virtual 
acquittal of the prisoners; proving again 



100 ALLAH KERIM 

that corruption and perjury had apparently- 
rendered the machinery of the LAW inopera- 
tive! There was no power in the State trib- 
unals to bring them to Justice; with organiza- 
tion oaths and secrecy baffling, and defying 
the appliance of the law; and bringing them 
to each other's aid. 

This acquittal of the prisoners so enraged 
the people, that a meeting of the leading citi- 
zens was convened in the streets under the 
statue of Henry Clay. It was resolved 
that the people should take the law into 
their own hands. 

A mob of excited citizens under the leader- 
ship of a prominent member of society, 
rushed upon the jail with furious yells; and 
in excess of rage, they burst open the prison 
doors; and began to massacre the prisoners, 
they shot down seven and dragged forth the 
balance; and began hanging them to the 
lamp-posts, they were like fiends in their 
madness! What a frightful DIN, shouts, 
yells, screams, oaths! In the midst of this 
hubbub, the Viper who was like an eel, slipped 
out of the clutches of those who were holding 
him; fleeing in terror from an appalling fate. 



ALLAH KERIM 101 

He made for the river; the tramping of thou- 
sands of feet close behind him; he reached 
the bank gasping for breath ; he cannot refrain 
from turning his head, 'THEY ARE COM- 
ING! THEY ARE COMING! He found 
himself suddenly beset by all the terrors 
prepared for those who wander from the 
"STRAIGHT AND NARROW PATH." 
Here was NEMESIS in the shape of an aw- 
ful, unutterable idea of ETERNITY. He 
jumped into the river; and made a dive for 
his life. 

The mob reached the river, forming a line 
along the bank; ready to shoot, as soon as he 
rose to the surface of the water. In a few 
seconds he came up to breathe ; and when he 
saw that mob ready to shoot, a savage grim- 
ace writhed across his mouth; distorting all 
his features, so that whereas they had been 
brutish they now appeared devilish; he was 
like a demon just up from the bottomless pit. 
The mob now blazed away; the Viper's face 
was completely riddled with the shot from 
their guns, the whole front of his face was 
shot away, leaving nothing but a mask of 
clotted blood : in a few seconds the river was 



102 ALLAH KERIM 

stained crimson with his blood ; and then that 
gory face, its human features so hideously 
destroyed, sank to rise no more! 

The mob recoiled in horror — for this ter- 
minated one of the most dreadful looking 
deaths any human being could witness! And 
so descended the black curtain which sooner 
or later must drop its shadowy folds upon our 
lives; and the prophecy of the Good Book 
receives a new and pregnant illustration. 

God had put an end to his life. And as he 
had sown so had he reaped, from the wind, 
the whirlwind. There are certain penalties 
that every career must pay! Sometime, 
early or late, he falls a victim to the law of 
human nature, which long since was written 
in the Book: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, 
by man shall his blood be shed." As a Turk 
would phrase it — "ALLAH KERIM" (God's 
will be done.) 

"Lord, let war's tempest cease 
Fold the whole earth in peace, 
Make all thy Nations one 
All hearts beneath the sun 
Till thou shalt reign alone 
Great King of KINGS!" 



CHAPTER XI 

Conclusion 
"The little I have seen in the world, and known of 
The history of mankind, teaches me to look upon 
Their errors with sorrow, not in anger. When I 
Take the history of one poor heart that has sinned 
And suffered, and represent to myself the struggles, 
And temptations it passed through; the brief pulsa- 
tions 
Of joy; the tears of regret; the feebleness of purpose; 
The scorn of the world that has little charity; the 
Desolation of the soul's sanctuary; the threatening 

voices 
Within; the health gone, happiness gone — I would 

fain leave 
The erring soul of my fellow- men with HIM from 

whose hands 
It CAME." 

Dr. Chalmers. 

Whatever may be our faith, the presence 
of death, drives the mind to thoughts of im- 
mortality. It is death alone that can sud- 
denly make Man to know Himself. 

It is the end of a career that gives the 
character to it all. A story is told that King 

103 



104 ALLAH KERIM 

Croesus in his prosperous years asked the 
Greek Sage Solon, "If he did not deem him a 
happy man?" and Solon replied: " Count no 
man happy until he is dead." 

Solomon said: "Better is the end of a thing 
than the beginning.' ' Lord Buddha, the 
founder of the Buddhist religion, who was 
born 500 years before Christ; the following 
is one of his doctrines: "None shall spill the 
blood of life, or take of flesh, since life is one, 
and mercy cometh to the merciful.' ' 

The Talmud abounds in lessons of virtue, 
of gentleness, of forgiveness and of peace, 
many of which men have yet to learn ; it en- 
forces and defines the highest principles of 
progress, it teaches: "Be persecuted, rather 
than persecutors" and also that "Thou shalt 
not kill" as well as "Thou shalt not steal." 

To do evil is to bring forth destructive 
elements. Those who live by hate, die by 
hate, that is "those who live by the sword 
will die by the sword." To prove this let us 
look back over history, which introduces us 
to the life of past generations. This record 
of the past is undeniable. 

No historical fact is of any value except so 



ALLAH KERIM 105 

far as it helps us to understand human na- 
ture; the lessons of the past contain many 
truths of high importance, which should in- 
fluence the future. We are the products of 
the past, and the sacrifices of the past are our 
strength and power of the future. As we 
grow very unlike what we were, we may yet 
become very unlike what we are at present. 

Let us now consider the career of some of 
the most conspicuous names in the records of 
the past, which will be a means of illustra- 
ting the proverb, "Whoso sheddeth man's 
blood by man shall his blood be shed." 

Of the seven Kings of Rome, only two 
died natural deaths; of the twelve Caesars 
only three, Augustus, Titus, and Vespasian, 
died natural deaths, and of the thirty-nine 
succeeding Emperors, twenty-nine died of 
violence. 

In the records of ancient Rome we find ac- 
counts of the horrible wars of Sylla and 
Marius, followed with executions yet more 
horrible, until the Forum ran red with blood, 
and the people wearied with internecine strife, 
were ready to accept the comparative peace 
and prosperity which the empire afforded. 



106 ALLAH KERIM 

Here Caesar fell, victor of many battles, to 
be at last the victim of assassins. 

Tiberius expires, fleeing from the Senate 
and from his conscience; in the house of Lu- 
cullus, smothered under the pillows of his bed, 
without knowing to whom will descend the 
crown which was like a bridal ring with which 
he had wedded the earth, already hearing the 
noisy delight occasioned by the news of his 
death in the court and in the streets. 

Caligula is wounded among Asiatic come- 
dians, and expires begging in vain for mercy 
from his executioners. 

Claudius is poisoned by his own wife. 
Galba falls assassinated in the streets, and 
his head separated from his trunk, rolls 
through the mire, like a stone. Otho com- 
mits suicide. 

The glutton Vitellius flies with his butcher 
and cook; he takes refuge in a porter's lodge; 
he falls into the hands of his enemies, denies 
his name and is dragged by the neck with a 
long rope, is conducted in the midst of the 
insults of the people, who rain stones and 
filth upon him, to the banks of the Tiber, where 
they trample him to death with their feet. 



ALLAH KERIM 107 

Nero was feasting when word came to him 
that the rebel Galba had burst into Rome 
and seized the Imperial sceptre. Flushed 
with wine and fierce with anger and alarm, 
he upset the table, broke his favorite dishes, 
called for a box of poison, and rushed into 
the palace gardens, and there considered 
what he should do next. After which the ex- 
cited Monarch went to bed and fell asleep, 
when the dawn came he found that his guards 
had deserted, and carried away the poison as 
well as the bedclothes. Barefooted and in 
his nightrobe he rushed toward the Tiber to 
drown himself, but turned at a safe distance 
from the banks, and walked slowly back. 
Like all cruel men, he was a coward, and was 
afraid to apply the Roman remedy for in- 
tolerable trouble. Nero's faithful friend 
found him in this sad plight, threw a mantle 
over him, placed him on a horse and fled with 
him before the yelling rebels to a solitary 
country house, where he was exhorted to kill 
himself quickly. His grave was dug before 
his eyes, and after much hesitation, he placed 
a dagger at his throat. His cowardly hand 
refused to press it, he begs of his companions 



108 ALLAH KERIM 

that they shall kill some one else to show him 
how to die; he weeps and supplicates until 
an attendant passes a sword through his 
throat and Nero dies in desperation and 
shame. His body was laid upon a costly 
funeral pile under a silken coverlet, and con- 
sumed. The grave was only for his ashes. 

The three who died natural deaths; Ves- 
pasian died drunk; Titus, died of melancholy, 
weeping like a woman, imagining he heard 
the threatening of thunder in the clear heav- 
ens, assailed by visitations of infernal terror. 
Augustus, dies with a sardonic smile on his 
lips, with cold skepticism in his heart, be- 
lieving his empire a farce, his life a comedy, 
his end the exit of an actor. 

Domitian, died wounded in the stomach 
by his domestics, struggling with a crowd of 
freedmen, pretorians, and gladiators, who in- 
sult him, spit in his face, strike him, torture 
him, and kill him with howls of rage and 
derisive laughter. 

The cruel and indolent Richard the Second, 
fled in the disguise of a monk, and wandered 
in suffering and privation from castle to 
castle, finally surrendered himself to the Earl 



ALLAH KERIM 109 

of Northumberland, who promised him pro- 
tection from personal violence. He was 
compelled to sign his resignation, after which 
he was sent to Pontefract Castle, where he 
died by the sword. 

Edward the Second, a cruel oppressor, who 
shed the blood of high and low to satisfy 
his desires, was driven from his capital and 
held a prisoner at Kenilworth. The keepers 
of the royal prisoner having private wrongs 
to avenge treated him cruelly; and not long 
afterwards he was murdered in a horrible 
manner in Berkeley Castle. 

Henry III caused the Duke of Guise to be 
assassinated, and was himself struck down by 
the avenging dagger of a Dominican Monk. 

When King Charles the First was led to the 
place of execution in front of the palace of 
Whitehall, he was insulted by the soldiers 
and the mob, who uttered all sorts of unfeel- 
ing cries, and some even went so far as to spit 
in his face. 

Peter III is persecuted by Catherine his 
wife, the Pasiphae of the North, the coarse 
fury of crowned sensuality. When he was in 
prison the very men who promised him 



110 ALLAH KERIM 

liberty, poisoned him in secret in a night of 
debauch, in a orgy of mingled blasphemy 
and brutality. When Peter felt the first 
effect of the poison he turned furiously upon 
the assassins. They knew there was no time 
to be lost, and assailed him like a mad bull, 
overcame him in spite of his Herculean 
efforts, threw him to the ground, falling all 
about him in his death-struggle, until they 
killed him with a thousand wounds, mashing 
his head against the floor. The next day, the 
afflicted Empress deposited in a magnificent 
catafalque the body of her husband dressed 
in the uniform of a Russian general. The 
Russians have a custom of kissing the lips of 
the corpses of their friends. The masses 
kiss the corpses of the Czars. When they 
kissed the lips of Peter III they drank the 
poison, and so corrosive was the liquid, that 
sudden swellings appeared on their mouths. 

Paul I died in the same manner. His 
servants, his domestics, his courtesans pulled 
at the strings by which this savage was 
strangled. 

Charlie IX died by poison. His last hours 
were wretched, and his remorse for the mas- 



ALLAH KERIM 111 

sacre of St. Bartholomew filled his soul with 
agony. He beheld spectres, and dreamed 
horrid dreams, his imagination constantly 
saw heaps of livid bodies, and his ears were 
assailed with imaginary groans. 

Nearly all the leaders on both sides, per- 
ished by the sword or the dagger. The 
Prince of Conde, the Duke of Guise, and his 
brother, the Cardinal of Lorraine, all were 
assassinated. 

Philip of Spain set a price upon the head of 
William of Orange, that is he offered a re- 
ward for his assassination. But when Wil- 
liam fell under the pistol of Genard his blood 
stained Philip's church and all the perfume 
of Araby could not sweeten the spot, nor all 
the holy-water of the world wash it away. 

Philip II, the cruel executioner, who 
delighted in the torments and the death 
of his victims, the assassin of his own son, 
died in great agony in the palace of the 
Escorial. 

Charles the XII, the Madman of the North, 
was finally killed at Fredrikshall. 

Mary, Queen of Scots pays on the scaffold 
at Fotheringry the penalty of her crimes. 



112 ALLAH KERIM 

History is little else than the record of 
such illustrations ; the student stands amazed 
at the exhibition of the fiendish malignity of 
those who were noted in the annals of the past. 

Alexander, Caesar and Napoleon, have 
amazed the world with their daring exploits, 
and by the mighty powers which they ex- 
hibited in the service of ambition; but — 
WHAT WAS THE END OF THEIR 
CAREER? 

Nero, Caesar Borgia, Richard III, have 
shown to what prodigious efforts unmingled 
sin may summon the human powers. 

D'Alembert, Diderot, and Voltaire, have 
evinced to what almost supernatural feats 
of intellectual strength the mind may be 
summoned, in a united effort to corrupt a 
nation, and dethrone religion from the hearts 
of men. 

Nebuchadnezzar, reminds us of the Black 
Prince and Edward III of England. Robe- 
spierre, Saint Just, Le bas, and Hebert prove 
how grossness can take the show of goodness, 
and become as corrupting as it is fascinating 
in the glow of a beautiful rhetoric. The 
memorable saying of Robespierre in his ora- 



ALLAH KERIM 113 

tion, 'Today for pleasure, tomorrow for jus- 
tice/' which justice signified bloody hecatombs 
to the guillotine, he sought to effect the Revo- 
lution by terrifying executions of the guillo- 
tine ; alas! it has ever been so ; the worst crimes 
that soil the pages of history have been com- 
mitted in the name of that which is holiest: 
in the name of LIBERTY, or of JUSTICE, 
or of RELIGION. 

The web of history is woven from the 
countless threads of individual life, and is 
necessary for man's education and progress, 
the present which despises the past, will never 
give birth to a better future. 

Sometime, early or late, man falls a victim 
to the law of human nature, which takes upon 
him tumultuous vengeance during his death 
struggle, it is then, that justice begins. We 
may laugh at these things ; in our self-conceit, 
we may sneer with cold skepticism in our 
hearts, but, just the same, WE cannot be so 
easily rid of it, no matter how great we may 
be; we cannot overcome the grand scheme of 
destiny. "Man proposes and Fate disposes. " 
To those who laugh in their self-conceit, let 
them think of the death of George Orloff 



114 ALLAH KERIM 

who died a raving madman, the victim of re- 
morse. The bleeding shade of the murdered 
Peter III followed him wherever he went; 
terrified him in horrible visions at night, and 
seemed constantly to threaten him with 
avenging darts. 

Let them think of the death of Alexander 
who shut himself up like a hermit in the coun- 
try, and died there, in the manner of Titus; 
among possessions and terrors, half mad, 
furious against himself, jealous of himself, 
without belief in humanity, or hope in God. 

Let them think of the death of Oliver 
Cromwell; who lived in constant fear of the 
dagger; who surrounded himself with guards, 
wore armor beneath his outer garments, who 
slept in a different chamber every night; and 
died during a storm which tore roofs from 
houses and leveled huge trees in every forest 
amidst the most gloomy apprehensions. 

Let them think of the death of Queen 
Elizabeth, whose last days were passed in a 
state of melancholy; her soul burdened with 
secret grief, refusing to eat, dying of starvation. 

Let them think of the death of James V, 
who died at last broken-hearted and deserted ; 



ALLAH KERIM 115 

paying the penalty all traitors pay in univer- 
sal neglect and contempt. 

Let them think of the death of Princess 
Mary, who suffering in mind and body; neg- 
lected by Philip and hated by her own people, 
died in unspeakable agony. 

Let them think of the death of Napoleon 
Bonaparte who died an exile, on the island of 
Saint Helena; forsaken by all, and like Oliver 
Cromwell, during a fierce tempest. I have 
taken but a few names from a mighty list; 
only a few dead coals raked from the embers 
of a tremendous conflagration. 'The evil 
that men do lives after them." So let us all 
remember the great king of ancient days who 
asked the philosopher to name some of the 
happiest of the race; and who named men 
who had passed away; and the king asked 
him why he did not name men who were still 
living: "Look at all my splendour" said he, 
"why do you not think of me?" "Ah" said 
the wise man," who knows what your life and 
your lot may be yet? I call no man happy 
before he dies," and sure enough that mon- 
arch was reduced to captivity and misery, 
and died a miserable death. And so it is 



116 ALLAH KERIM 

that "Better the end of a thing than the be- 
ginning." 

Let us remember the past ; so that we may 
correct our mistakes, and strengthen our con- 
fidence in the future. The object of our 
daily pursuit, and our aim in everything we 
do, should be towards the attainment of the 
ideal. We are capable of great personal 
development, all are familiar with the quota- 
tion, "To him that hath shall be given" this 
is as true of the mind as it is of the material 
things of life. Growth to be real, must be 
progressive, and the months and years 
should bring development in the thing grow- 
ing ; is it practice alone that brings the powers 
of the mind as well as those of the soul to its 
perfection, pure thoughts flow from pure 
principles and aims at pure ends, that which 
is really good, springs from a good motive, 
flows from a good principle, is directed by a 
good rule, and aims at a good end. Dante 
has said "Humanity is one. God has created 
no useless thing. Humanity exists; hence 
there must be a single aim for all men ; a work 
to be achieved by all, the human race must, 
therefore, work in unity, so that all the in- 



ALLAH KERIM 117 

tellectual forces diffused among men may ob- 
tain the highest possible develpoment in the 
sphere of thought and action." 

There is a fact which we must keep steadily 
in view, that the germ of all that is best in 
our modern civilization is to be sought among 
the institutions of antiquity; the Hebrew's 
mission was a grand one, to teach righteous- 
ness, of all the elements of the rich legacy 
bequested to the modern by the ancient 
world, by far the most important in their in- 
fluence upon the course of events were those 
transmitted to us by the ancient Hebrews. 
Their mission was to teach religion, and here 
they have been the instructors of the world, 
their literature is a religious one, for to them 
literature was simply a medium for religious 
instruction and the awakening of devotional 
feeling. 

Emerson "exhorts us to read the great 
writers thankfully and gratefully, take all 
they can give, and not to let them go until 
we receive their blessing," as Cicero says, "the 
mind of man is improved by learning and re- 
flection. To think is to live, man has been 
born for two things, thinking and acting.' ' 



118 ALLAH KERIM 

We all have faculties and powers capable 
of almost anything, but it is the exercise of 
these powers which gives to us ability and 
leads us to perfection, the desire to accom- 
plish is a proof of the ability to accomplish. 

The education of life does not consist in the 
number of things one knows, but is a spir- 
itual and moral process and can only be truly 
organized with a view to moral development, 
our pursuit of knowledge should be as a 
means to righteousness. Pindar insists stren- 
uously upon virtue and self-culture; with 
deep meaning he says, "Become that which 
thou art," that is be that which you are made 
to be. 

THE END 

"I believe that in all ages 
Every human heart is human; 
That in even savage bosoms 
There are longings, yearnings, strivings, 
For the good they comprehend not ; 
That the feeble hands and helpless, 
Groping blindly in the darkness, 
Reach God's right hand in the darkness, 
And are lifted up and strengthened." 

Longfellow 



